Alias
by ThatGirlRommu
Summary: The rise of the stones. The summoning of the Chosen. The only difference is that, this time, they must destroy the Digital World to save it. co-written with The Digital Gate
1. Prolouge: Dawn

**DISCLAIMER: Neither I or The Digital Gate own Digimon.

* * *

**

A golden tail thrashed irritably against the ground. "I hate this," the owner of the offending tail growled. "Is there nothing we can do?"

A fire-red bird gnashed his beak together in frustration. "If there was, we would have acted already, now wouldn't we have? The Digital World is ruined beyond our abilities are capable of handling!"

A great tiger rose. "Do not speak to Huanglongmon in that manner!"

"I will speak any way I choose, Baihumon!"

"_Silence_," the dragon roared. "We must think of a way to save the Digital World."

"Ah, but there is."

All heads swiveled to a giant tortoise.

"Then speak," the bird cried impatiently.

"Patience, Zhuqiamon. In fact, it is simple," the tortoise said. "Call forth once more the Chosen Children. They will be able to aid us."

"Yes, but _how?_" snapped Baihumon. "There is no way to reach them—we saw to that when we barred all the gates!"

"But there is," a voice rumbled. An azure dragon rose to his feet. "I have already acted upon it."

"You _dare_ act without first consulting Huanglongmon?" Baihumon exclaimed.

"Quiet," Huanglongmon ordered. He turned back to the other dragon. "Continue, Quinglongmon."

"There is a game," Quinglongmon said, raising his head and staring remorsefully at the starry sky, "in the human world. I have implanted a portal into six different copies. The Chosen Children will be brought forth once they play it."

"The _power_ it must have taken," the giant tortoise murmured in awe.

"But how do you know that the Chosen Children, whoever they are, will play the game?" Zhuqiaomon demanded.

"Because," Quinglongmon said, "it is all the rage in Japan. They will not be able to suppress the urge to play."

"Huanglongmon, do you support this?" the tortoise asked.

"In fact, I do, Xuanwumon." Huanglongmon sighed. "I am weary. Too weary. I cannot help the Digital World now. We must rely on the Chosen Children...and the Zenith Stones, that is..." He trailed off.

And although Huanglongmon abstained from saying the last few words, the thought echoed throughout the Shiseijuu's minds:

_...that is, if we wish to survive..._

_**Alias**__  
__Prologue: Dawn_

"_Alias,_the announcer said, "_the hottest rage in Japan. Reviving once more the lost game of Digimon, Alias brings the term 'virtual reality' to a whole new level! With realistic graphics, state-of-the-art-animation, and realistic sound effects, you'll feel like you're actually _in_ the game!_

"_Each game is different for each player. No two journeys are the same. Well_," the announcer chortled,_"the plot is, but don't let that stop you! Based on _your_ decisions and _your _actions—and sometimes even your _in_action—the path you take will be like no others'!_

"_A quiz will match you with your most compatible partner. And don't worry: if you don't like it, you can take it again—a maximum of three times—and your journey begins! Buy your copy today!_"

With that, the announcer flashed a cheesy grin, and the weatherman took over.

Fourteen-year-old Masaaki Suzuki stepped back from the TV inside the technology store. Brushing his messy brown hair from his brown eyes and snapping his goggles to his forehead, he grinned excitedly. "Awesome! I've_got_to get it."

He plunged his left hand into the pocket of his tan cargo pants and felt…nothing. Cursing, he pulled his hand back out and fished in his other pocket. Still nothing.

"Shoot! Have to run home first..."

With that, he dashed off for his apartment building as fast as he could.

_Wonder if Minori wants it too...  
_

Something was strange that day as Minori walked home from school. Sure, she had been declared best in her class for writing, but that was only because of the story her teacher had found lying out on the table one day. And she had also won a race in a gym, which was unusual. And had actually managed to get through the day without feeling tired and grumpy. Maybe it wasn't her that was strange. Maybe it was more the fact that things seemed to be a bit too happy.

She didn't mind the things that were happening, but she knew that in every good thing, there must be a bad thing. And with all these good things happening, something really bad must be just around the corner.

As she walked home that day, she passed by a shop full of televisions in the window. Normally she wouldn't pay any attention to them, but someone was on there shouting something. "Alias! The newest and most realistic Digimon game to hit the markets! Get yourself a copy today!"

_What an idiot_, Minori thought to herself as she scowled at the televisions. _Any fool would get that game just to make you shut your mouth._ She shook her head. Advertisers. Any fool would buy that game.

* * *

"Happy birthday, Aya," her brothers sang, shoving a game into her hands.

Thirteen-year-old Aya Li looked away from the television to stare blankly at the badly wrapped present in her hands. "But it's not my birthday," she protested, looking up.

"Too bad," her middle brother, Jun'ichi, said. He plopped himself down beside her and stared at her expectantly. "Open it up, you geek."

"You're one to talk," Aya muttered. Fifteen years old, Jun'ichi was at the top of his class, and was known as the family computer nerd. Eyeing the package distastefully, she asked, "Who wrapped this?"

"I did!" Ichiro, the oldest at sixteen, waved both arms in the air excitedly. "Don't you just _love_ it?"

"Not really. It's a mess." As if to prove her point, Aya held up the package: it was crudely wrapped, with tape everywhere and pieces of badly folded corners jutting up every which way.

At that, Jun'ichi and her other brother, fourteen-year-old Hikaru, whooped and slapped Ichiro on the back. "Told you!" he crowed.

"Just open it already," Ichiro said irritably, picking up their youngest sibling, five-year-old Kayo, and bouncing her around.

"Open it!" she chanted. "Open, open, open!"

Rolling her eyes, Aya opened the package and found a brand new copy of Alias.

* * *

"Sikke! Your room's a sty!" His mother daintily picked up a pair of dirty laundry that had been lying on the floor. "How are you able to find anything in here?"

"Simple," Sikke had his usual happy-go-lucky grin on his face as he walked, or possibly even bounced, into his room where his mother was glaring at all the possible things that were wrong with his room. "I use memory."

His mother shook her head. "I swear child, you're so…"

"Unpredictable?" Sikke asked as he plopped onto his bed, arms stretched behind his head in a resting position, where he closed his eyes with a smirk.

"No," his mother continued searching for the right word. "Un—…"

"Don't hurt yourself 'kaa-san," Sikke stated.

He peeked open his eyes to see that she was about to say something when the doorbell rang. His mother sighed. "I'll get it."

A few moments later after she had left the room, she returned, saying it was for Sikke.

"What now?" he asked as he made his way to the door of the small house. He almost froze where he stood when he saw who it was.

"SIKKE!" a voice exclaimed before pummeling him to the ground in a hug. He struggled to get up. Finally giving up against the thing that was on top of him, he let his head hit the floor.

"Nao? Can you get off of me?" he murmured.

"Whoops! Sorry 'bout that!" a squeaky voice exclaimed, slowly getting up, allowing him to get up. But the second the he was standing, Nao had shoved something into his hands.

"Happy early Christmas! Or birthday! Or whatever holiday is next!" she exclaimed.

He looked down at the neatly wrapped gift in his hands. He could of swore that it had been store wrapped. But then again, Nao was quite the crafts person, so he couldn't tell. "Er…Thanks?" he said, unsure of how he should react.

"Open it! Open it!" she exclaimed, already grabbing to open it for him. He let her go ahead and rip it open. It was better to just go along with it than fighting back. After getting it handed back to him after it was unwrapped, he looked down to see some sort of game. It couldn't be…

"Alias?" he asked rather quickly. "Why'd you get me—"

Nao looked like she was going to cry. "You hate it? I thought you liked Digimon…"

"Don't cry Nao! Don't cry! Of course I like it!" Sikke said rather quickly.

In truth, Sikke hadn't paid attention to Digimon for years.

* * *

Katuso had never really paid attention to school. Didn't care for it really. Nor did he have any friends to pass the time away with. So school days became dull and boring. And when school was out for the day, it seemed like the rest of the day after school was rather dull and boring too.

He never wanted to show his father that his grades were slipping slowly. He knew what would happen. Yelling, lectures, the usual. It was the normal way for his father to speak to him when he did something wrong. And it seemed like he was always doing something wrong.

"Alias! Buy it or I'll come after you!"

_What?_ Katsuo turned his head and looked up at one of the humongous screens that were placed on the buildings that were always advertising something. Even the news.

"Ever wonder what a new journey would be like? Well, have your own new journey in Alias, the newest installment in Digimon gaming. Take the quiz to be pared with your own Digimon partner and journey through this game. Every journey is different, so don't expect the same journey each time."

Katuso wondered briefly what a new journey would be like. Would it be much better than the boring life he had now? Perhaps. It was worth a shot.

And so, he made his way slowly around town, looking for a game store that would supply him an adventure.

* * *

_Pop._

Fourteen-year-old Shiro Fujiwara jumped. Annoyed, he turned to see his older sister, Katsumi, behind him. "Would you mind?" he asked irritably, slamming his book shut. "I'm trying to study."

Katsumi shrugged, chewing on her piece of gum. "Not my problem," she said, right before she tossed something into his lap. "Kotone got this for you. She's too shy to give it to you herself, though. Have fun."

Shiro snorted. At age fifteen, Katsumi had developed what his parents liked to call her "little gum problem." Kotone, on the other hand, was eleven and had what his parents liked to call her "little sleep problem." As for him, he had a "little attitude problem."

He picked up the rectangular item on his lap. It was Alias. The new Digimon game everybody was talking about. How had Kotone known that he wanted it? He would've bought it for himself if he had the money.

He set it beside him and reached for his book once more. But it was hard to concentrate; his thoughts kept returning to the game. Finally, he gave in and grabbed the game and headed for his room. _Just for an hour. Then I'll study some more._

Once in, he shut the door, popped open the case, stuck the disc inside the computer, and waited for it to boot up. To pass the time, he shot a rubber band around the room while it loaded. When it had, he sat up.

**Welcome to Alias**, the screen said.

Then, without warning, the screen and everything around him went as black as night.

* * *

_Okay, we're only going to play this once, for Nao's sake,_ Sikke told himself as he sat at his mother's computer.

"_Oh, but Sikke, it will be a lot of fun! Didn't you say you liked Digimon?"_

Sikke smacked himself mentally. Whatever you tell your parents always seems to come back and hurt you.

His expression lightened a bit. "What if it is fun? It could be," he told himself, wondering what the game would be like. He was resting back in his relaxing position with his arms behind his head and his legs crossed in his chair when he saw some lights on the computer shine and looked down at it.

**Welcome to Alias,** it said.

And then everything went white.

* * *

Masaaki raced back from the store, clutching two copies of Alias in hand. Their mother had said to buy two, since she didn't think Minori would want to share the same journey progress as he did.

He burst through the door, yelling, "Thanks, 'kaa-san!" and bolted for his room. He stopped by Minori's, threw open her door without bothering to knock, and chucked a copy of Alias in at random.

"Enjoy!"

Then he raced back into his own room and, inserting the disc into his computer, waited for it to load.

It was surprisingly quick.

**Welcome to Alias,**the screen read.

And he was plunged into a world of darkness.

* * *

Sitting on her bed reading a book, Minori was in a peaceful state in her mind when she heard a loud, "Enjoy!" and a hard, square-ish thing landed by her feet. Cursing her brother mentally, she put her book down to see what it was and looked at it curiously until she realized it was a copy of Alias. Looking at the wall the divided her brother's room and her's, she wondered to herself if he was a mind reader. _Nah_, she thought as she went to the side of her bed and pulled out her hand-me-down laptop that had once been her dad's. She had claimed it when he had left the house. He didn't seem to mind.

Placing the disc into the computer, she waited, and it didn't to take too much time until she had her fingers tapping the keyboard, an impatient glare looking at the screen. And finally, she sighed as words popped up on the screen.

**Welcome to Alias.**

But she didn't even get to tap another key. Bright light had flooded over her.

* * *

"Are you going to play it now?"

"No," Aya said.

Hikaru paused, fiddled with his thumbs, stared at the ceiling, then said, "Now?"

"No."

Ichiro, who had been counting all the leaves in their apartment building, glanced at his wristwatch, returned to counting the leaves, looked at his watch again and asked, "What about now?"

Scowling, Aya dropped her pencil. "Look," she said, "if I play it, will you two shut up and go away?"

"Yes!" both Hikaru and Ichiro chorused.

Aya glared, then groaned and closed her books. "Fine. But you can't watch." They opened their mouths to protest but she cut them off. "Or I won't play."

So they sulked, wandering off to presumably bother Jun'ichi instead. Sure enough, as she headed for her room, she could hear him shouting at them to get a life and bug off. Aya groaned again and put the disc into her computer. And she'd wanted to catch up on her homework, too...As the game began to load, she picked up her pencil and began writing once more.

The screen blinked to life.

**Welcome to Alias**.

Before she had time to put down her pencil, everything around her went pitch-black.

* * *

"'Nee-chan?"

A tall, skinny figure looked almost surprised. "Katsuo…is that you I hear? You're actually speaking to me?"

Katuso almost wanted to yell at her for making it such a big deal. "I was just wondering if you could help me with the computer. It's doing a bunch of weird things."

His sister sighed and agreed, showing him that he had plugged some of the wires in wrong. "You've got to learn how to plug in Dad's computer if you want to play this game, alright?" With that said, she left, glancing at him before disappearing out of the room and out of sight.

Good, now I can play alone.

He put the CD into the hard drive and waited for it to boot up. He sat there and caught himself fidgeting multiple times. And just when he was about to give up, he saw some words appear on the screen.

**Welcome to Alias.**

And that was when he fell into what he thought was endless white light.

* * *


	2. Day: Daybreak

**Disclaimer: **Neither I or The Digital Gate own digimon.

* * *

_**Alias**_  
_Day: Daybreak_

Some days never went the way I had planned. I had never "planned" to have a game thrown at me by nii-san, and I hadn't planned for the game to cause me problems, and take forever to load. I had also never planned to see a flash of light, let alone being sucked into my computer.

Weirdly enough it seemed as though the world was still going on in an orderly fashion. Or at least, somewhere in the world it was. All I could see was that I was sitting in a completely white room with nothing in it at all with something pushing into my back.

Turns out that something was two "someones". And those two someones were both of the male gender.

Great. Just great.

I slowly moved forward, carefully making sure both of the unconscious boys weren't disturbed as I stood up and looked around.

Where am I?

The answer came back almost immediately in a loud, mysterious voice. "The Digital World, Chamber of Beginnings."

I jumped and spun around to see if the voice had come from one of the two boys. I heard a snicker and heard it again.

"Neither you nor I could wake them with our thoughts." The mocking tone this new voice used made me grind my teeth and bite back a retort.

I asked another question, this time out loud. "The Digital World?" I asked in a whispered.

Once again, the voice came back immediately. "Yes, a place where one can find beginnings."

I was still puzzled. The way this voice spoke was weird. Like it was from some olden time.

"Who are you?" I finally managed to say after a few moments, as I puzzled about whether I had fallen asleep or not while waiting for the game to load.

"I assure you, you are awake. In fact, I can pinch you if you like."

Before I could say words of protest, I felt something pinch me in my side and I yelped, my hand unconsciously jumping to my side as I began to rub that spot where I'd been pinched.

I looked around to see something like a wizard in front of me. Skeleton on its witch's hat, a long purple cape, and a staff with a sun at the top.

"My name's Wizarmon, and I'd like to say, first of all, that you are one lucky human. I must say congrats. Normally one would think the tougher ones would be chosen, but I suppose you'll have to do. You must be mighty special after all to be chosen."

I looked at him with genuine confusion. "What are you talking about?"

He held up his hand, sensing I had many questions. He smiled and played with the staff with his fingers. "Patience. Wait until those two regain consciousness. Then I will explain everything."

* * *

It took them forever to wake up. I sat there for what seemed like hours, impatiently waiting. I even caught myself tapping my fingers and fiddling with my unruly, brown hair.

"How long does it normally take?" I asked, looking at Wizarmon, who seemed to be enjoying himself.

"One would not think that dreams would be so fascinating," he stated, as though he couldn't hear me, which I doubted. Thoughts could sometimes speak louder than words.

"What?" I said, confused.

"Their dreams are odd, but funny."

It took me a few second to register that he was talking about the other two and turned my head to look at them. The boy with lighter hair (I wanted to call it a dark blonde)was moving in his sleep, something obviously happening in his dream. His teeth were starting to clench.

"I did play the game! Honest!" he blurted out as his eyes flashed open. They were a light green color.

We just stared at him, me with a raised eyebrow and Wizarmon with what could have been a smirk or a grin.

"You're awake my friend." Another fact we all knew. Wizarmon was never going to answer my questions.

The boy looked around, as if just noticing he was in a new place. "Wh-Where am I? I didn't wake up from my dream yet, have I?"

I glanced over at Wizarmon as I heard a chuckle. "You children are all the same…" he murmured, shaking his head.

I got frustrated over the comment and glared at him. He'd act surprised if he had no idea where he was too! At least, it felt better to think so. I wasn't so sure at the moment.

"Settle down child," Wizarmon said. Whether he spoke to the boy or me, I wasn't quite sure.

There was silence for a few moments before the other boy arose. He looked at us, blinked, and as if believing that we weren't there, he closed his eyes again.

"Argh," Wizarmon muttered. I glanced up at him.

"What?"

"Why must all children think they are dreaming when they see me? It's just so unpredictable!"

I deeply inhaled and exhaled. This was going to be awhile.

* * *

"Now, let's just introduce ourselves first before I explain. I'm Wizarmon. Please do not call me anything else but that."

We had all gotten into a circle, under Wizarmon's orders, and I glanced around the circle at the two I'd woken up with next to me.

"Okay, you first," Wizarmon looked at the boy who had woken up from his dream yelling. "Say your name, age and something interesting about yourself, if you please."

He smiled cheerfully. He'd been like this ever since he'd woken up. "My name's Sikke. I'm 13 years old, almost 14. And-" he paused, looking up at the ceiling while he thought and then looked back at them with a grin. "My favorite food is salmon."

I rolled my eyes. I thought of this as Wizarmon's excuse to stall even longer before giving us answers.

Wizarmon looked at the dark haired kid next. The kid looked up and blinked. "Katsuo Ishikawa. 13."

There was a long pause. At first I thought he wasn't going to answer at all. But he did.

"I've never really played or watched Digimon at all in my whole life. I just sort of…decided to play this game for the fun of it."

Wizardmon nodded approvingly before turning to me. "And you?"

"I'm Minori Suzuki," I said, crossing my arms. "I'm 14, so I guess that makes me the oldest."

"Hey, I'm turning 14 in a few weeks!" Sikke protested.

I ignored him and continued on. "Hmm…Let's see…Well," I thought hard of something to say. "I've been told that I'm…a good writer?"

Wizarmon nodded and smiled. "And I'm Wizarmon."

There was a long pause while the three of us just stared at him. "...And?" Sikke asked.

Wizarmon blinked, and just stood up stretching. "And, I guess it's time to take you somewhere. Come on then."

I rolled my eyes, while Sikke protested out loud. "What, you're not even going to say your age? Unfair!"

Wizarmon turned around to give Sikke a look that scared even me. "My age does not concern you, and I'm far wiser than you will ever hope to be."

He led us to a door (which was white, and blended in with the rest of the room, which is why I probably didn't see it before), and took us into a long hallway. "Follow me."

We followed, having nothing else to do. The hallways weren't as big as they seemed and we ended up walking in a line behind Wizarmon; Sikke in front, Katsuo slowly walking behind me, and I was in the middle. I kept having to look over my shoulder to tell Katsuo to hurry up, but half the time I was sure he wasn't listening to me.

We entered a room that looked exactly like the one we had just left and we all filed in and just stood there, looking around in silence. That was when I noticed it.

It was sort of odd. The stone was sort of mysterious in it's own way. We all stared at it for awhile before I took a step forward, crossing my arms.

"Wizarmon? Why did you bring us here?" I asked.

Sikke and Katsuo looked back at Wizarmon, but I didn't. I just waited for an answer. I heard a sigh.

"Well, you see, we digimon have always had a prophecy that strangers would be summoned from a different world and bring peace to the Digital World. But, the only way we would be able to tell if they were the 'Chosen Ones', was to touch this stone. They said only this stone would be able to tell us the truth."

I nodded, processing what he had said. Curiosity got the better of me, but I had one question stuck in my mind. "You think we're your 'chosen ones'?"

There was a long pause and I took my gaze off the stone to look over to notice Sikke and Katsuo's questioning looks as if they weren't sure where this was leading to. Wizarmon just looked at the ground.

"We've had many strangers come to this world before, but the stone never responded. They were others who played the game, same as you, and thought they were still in the game."

Sikke spoke up. "Well, we are in a game, aren't we? I can't blame them for thinking that. I'm not so sure myself if I'm just dreaming this or I'm playing the game," he grinned. "I kind of like this game though. The suspense is killing me. So, are we the chosen ones or not? It can't be that hard to find out."

I glared at him. "We are not the chosen ones. And you still think we're in a game despite all the explaining Wizarmon gave us?"

"Don't all video games explain things at the beginning?" Sikke said shrugging as if he didn't care. I was getting frustrated as it was.

"Listen here, this isn't normal you idiot!" I yelled. "Aren't you old enough to realize that?"

"And aren't you old enough to know not to believe everything somebody says?"

That got me angry. We started yelling back and forth until Wizarmon cut in.

"The only way I'll know if you are the chosen ones is for you to touch the stone. Or so the prophecy says. As soon as I know if you are or aren't the chosen ones, the quicker I'll know if I should send you home."

"Too bad. I'm not going to touch that stone," I stated firmly, storming off. "I'll probably just wake up in my bed at home anyways."

I walked out of the room and towards a small orange digimon passing by. "Show me where I can sleep. I want to be as far away from them as possible."

* * *

I couldn't sleep, as hard as I tried. I'd close my eyes only to open them a few seconds later. I tossed and turned and eventually I just got up and walked out of the spare room the digimon had showed me.

I shut the white door and looked around me. The place reminded me of the hospital; everything was white and everything looked the same. I had no doubt that I'd get lost in this place.

I looked around. Where to now? So, I just started walking and turned when I thought it was time to turn. Surely there'd be a way out of this place eventually.

And that's when I felt it. I felt like I knew where I was going and my pace quickened. Something was pulling me towards it and I wasn't sure what.

When I turned the corners, I felt the force guiding me towards it. I ran down hallway after hallway until I reached a door.

It looked familiar, although I knew that was very unlikely. All the doors looked the same in this place. But I turned the handle and walked in.

The stone was still where I'd last seen in; in the center of the far wall, a rug with a symbol that looked like the sun on the floor below it. I stared at it for a bit, watching it glow a light yellow, before realizing I had company.

"Katsuo?"

He looked back at me from where he was leaning against the wall and sort of just stared at me, before blinking and acknowledging that I was there with a nod.

"Couldn't sleep?" I asked.

Another nod. He glanced over at the stone. "I kept thinking…What if we were the chosen ones? Wouldn't that be…a great adventure? Saving the world…Wouldn't that be a cool task?"

"A cool task?" I grimaced. "Sounds more like a lot of responsibility."

He stood up from leaning against the wall. "But, just think. What if it was true we had a destiny? Wouldn't it be nice to have a different kind of life than the real world?" He crossed his arms and looked at the floor. "I wouldn't mind being needed by people. It'd feel…kind of nice."

I pondered that for a moment. The feeling of being needed…She didn't feel that too much.

She looked at him with curiosity, her brow furrowing in thought. "Do you think we are the chosen ones?"

"It'd be nice to believe," he murmured, turning back towards the stone.

We stood there in silence, not knowing what to say next. It was kind of odd to think that we were powerful people destined to save the Digital World. I remembered watching the Digimon movies when I was around eleven. If those kids were able to save the world, I was sure that I probably could. But, then the nerves kicked in, and I decided to forget about it.

I heard footsteps at the door and turned around quickly to see Sikke watching the stone glow. He glanced at us. "A rendezvous in the stone room, eh? Mind if I join in?"

"Shut up," I glared at him as he walked in.

"So, have you decided to give it a chance?" he asked, glancing up at the stone.

"What, do you want to be chosen too?"

"Well, I kind of liked the idea. Thought I'd give the stone a try and see if I was destined," he grinned.

I sighed. It seemed as though they were both ready to try, and I wasn't going to pass up the chance either.

"Okay then," I got their attention. They both looked at me. "How about we all touch it at once?"

Sikke raised an eyebrow.

"You know, to get it over with quickly?"

He grinned. "Fine, but you know you wanted to be chosen all along. Admit it."

I didn't answer him, just glared at him and looked at Katsuo, who nodded. "Okay then, on three."

We stepped towards the stone in unison, and glanced at one another. I nodded and they nodded back.

"One…"

I held my hand out and they did the same.

"Two…"

Silence.

"THREE!"

We touched it all at the same time and waited. It didn't do anything weird at all. By the way Wizarmon had described it, I half expected a voice to start talking to us all of a sudden.

Sikke was the first to take his hand off and sighed, putting his hands behind his head and stretching. "Well, we tried. Might as well get some sleep."

That was when three different colored orbs shot out of the stone.

* * *

**Romainu:** Okay then, first chapter is done.

Thanks to mangagirl for the review!


	3. Night: Creatures in the Stone

**Disclaimer:** Neither I or The Digital Gate own Digimon.

* * *

_**Alias  
**__Creatures in the Stone_

My name is Masaaki Suzuki. And I've just realized something today. Life can be weird, you know? Like one second you're all happy you won a race, and the next second you're on a ground with a sprained ankle because you tripped over a rock you didn't see. Or you aced a test on a subject you _stink_ at but you failed a test on a subject that you usually do really well in.

Or, in my case, you start to play a game that's popular worldwide, and the next thing you know, you're in a cave. Underground. With two other people you've never even seen before in your life.

Like I said: Life can be weird.

Swallowing down a groan that I was never going to finish my homework on time, I flopped against a wall. Pretty cold. Something caught my eye and I straightened. One of the two was waking up. The girl.

Her dark brown eyes snapped open. She stared at me. I stared at her. Then she took a good look around her. "Where are we?" she asked.

"No idea," I said simply.

The girl gestured at our other, still conked out, companion. "Do you know him?"

"Never met him before."

"I see." The girl leaned against a rugged wall of the cave. "Dark in here, isn't it?"

"I'll say." The girl was taking things pretty well. She was currently fidgeting with the hood of her short sleeve green jacket, before giving up. Maybe she thought she was dreaming, like I thought I was.

"Who are you?" I asked.

The girl unbound her black hair and began retying it. "I'm Aya Li," she said. "I live in Kitakyushu." Having finished, she proceeded to poke her eyes. Weird. "You?"

"Masaaki Suzuki," I replied. "What are you doing?"

"I have contacts," Aya explained. "I'm adjusting them. One time they rolled to the back of my head while I fell asleep in school and it wasn't pleasant at all." She glanced up at me. "Where do you live?"

"Hokkaido."

Then I remembered: Aya lived in Kitakyushu.

"How did you get here?" we both exclaimed at the same time. "How did _we _get here?!" Our shout rebounded off the walls—they were only a few feet apart—and woke our last companion up.

He shot up, his wild black hair in disarray and brown eyes wide. His expression relaxed when he saw us and he slumped against the wall like I had done earlier. "Who are you people?"

"Why don't you tell us who you are first?" Aya retorted.

"Why should I?"

"Why should we tell you about ourselves?"

A sudden flare flooded into the narrow cave and I turned, squinting. My insides went cold with panic. A dragon. A dragon stood in front of us.

The dragon, green scales shining brightly from the light of the torch, stared at us all each in turn through narrowed eyes. "Who are you?" the dragon rasped. Dragons could talk? Or was this still a dream?

"Who are you?" the boy instantly shot back. Apparently, he was still revved up from his recent spat with Aya.

"I am Coredramon," the dragon said. "And you are in the lair of Night. Why?"

"Because of the game?" I said.

"Game?" the dragon asked.

"Yeah, you know, Alias," I said. "The really popular game that came out? All I did was stick the game in, and the next thing I know, I'm here. Is this part of the plot or something?"

I could tell by the looks on Aya and the boy's faces that the exact same thing had happened to them as well.

The dragon, Coredramon or whatever his name was, seemed to consider that. Finally, he said, "Come with me. We're going to Slayerdramon."

None of us questioned Coredramon; no one wanted to risk getting eaten by a dragon. Although I couldn't help but ask, "Who the heck is Slayerdramon?"

* * *

As it turns out, Slayerdramon is an even bigger dragon. One that can stand on his hind legs. And has a sword.

Have I mentioned that life is weird yet?

The big dragon frowned down at us. "Where were they?"

"In our entrance, sir," the Coredramon said, bowing respectfully. "One of our cadets caught wind of intruders, and I was sent to investigate." He finished up by explaining what I had said earlier, and I realized how weird it sounded.

"I see." The big dragon, Slayerdramon, continued to frown. "Promote the cadet first. I'll see to these three." Coredramon bowed once more and went off.

For a while, we just stood there, saying nothing and doing nothing. Us, the humans, stared at the dragon. In return, the dragon stared at us. Finally, Slayerdramon said, "Come with me."

After leading us down a dark tunnel, Slayerdramon veered off course and, abruptly swinging to his left and going down another tunnel, placed his hand upon a slab of rock.

With a groaning sound, the rock slid open, and Slayerdramon entered the room beyond, gesturing for us to follow. With no where else to go, and not wanting to get eaten—well, me anyway—we followed.

I was the last to enter, which sort of made me feel like a coward; the rock closed behind me. But I was too busy gaping at what was in the room to care that we were potentially trapped.  
There was a stone in the center. A really big stone. And it glowed inside the dark cave, the only source of light, throwing off shimmers of greenish-blue color on the walls, and us. It reminded me of some sort of underwater cave.

I guessed that none of us were big speakers, as no one said anything, so I decided to take the lead. "Why are we here?"

Slayerdramon had his back to us. "There is a prophecy," he said, "of how strange beings will appear into the Digital World. They will each summon their own lifelong partner out of this stone here. And with those partners, they will bring peace to the Digital World."

"Is that where we are?" I asked. "The Digital World?"

"We sure aren't in Disney World," our unnamed companion muttered. I ignored him.

"You must think you're a genius," Aya said after she realized I wasn't going to bother with defending myself. It was obvious that we were not going to get along too well. Unless I was sleeping. Then it wouldn't matter. "What's your IQ, two?"

"Guys..." I began, but the boy cut me off.

"Oh, nice comeback," he snapped, rounding on Aya and shutting me out completely. "Did you think of that yourself?"

"Enough!" Slayerdramon boomed, and we all froze. "This is not how a team is supposed to act."

The boy's eyebrows rose incredulously. "A _team_?" he said. "You're joking, right? We don't even know if we're these 'strange beings'—"

"Chosen ones," Slayerdramon interrupted.

"Chosen ones, then," the boy corrected, "that you're talking about! And I don't even know if I'm hallucinating or not! For all I know, I could be having a nightmare and be waking up any second now—"

"In a mental ward?" Aya suggested, so low that only I could hear.

"Well," Slayerdramon rumbled, a challenge rising in his voice, "I suppose you'd better put your hands on the stone then and see if anything happens."

The boy seemed taken aback. "Well..."

"Chickening out?" Aya said; the boy glared at her. "I'm all for it." She stomped up to the gleaming stone. "Masaaki?"

I shrugged. "Could be interesting." I stepped up beside her. The boy, obviously not wanting to be outdone, glowered at us both before joining us. He took great care not to stand next to Aya.

On an unspoken command, all three lifted our hands, hesitated in the air, and then placed them upon the smooth surface.

Nothing.

Anticlimactic.

The boy whirled around, glaring at Slayerdramon. "Is this some sort of joke?"

Aya snorted. "If you had eyes, genius, you'd turn around."

Because three different colored orbs had risen out of the stone.

One, dark purple, shot for Aya; another, forest brown, aimed for our unnamed companion; the last, a moonlight blue, went for me. And, right in front of us, they began to change.

The blue orb molded itself into a strange device, looking somewhat like a wristwatch. A raised top, outlined in hard metal, was colored the same color as the orb. And suddenly, there was another orb rising out of the top, a star-like light.

The light began to form itself into a creature with abnormally long ears, and a billowing curtain-ish thing for a bottom. The light faded. And there was a..._thing_ hovering in front of me with not two, but four large ears, striped blue and white, with two pink ribbons crisscrossing in the center of its chest; in the intersection, there lay a pendent with a grey crescent moon smiling serenely. A blue-white strand jutted out of its forehead, just above a yellow half-circle.

The creature smiled at me. "Hello," it said in a melodic voice, sounding slightly feminine. "I am Lunamon."

"H...hi," I croaked. The device floated to me, and I caught hold of it. Decorated on its edges were characters I couldn't read; there was a screen in the middle. What was it for?

Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Aya greeting a purple, furry dinosaur with a red jewel and a white muzzle. She was taking it oddly well.

The other one was as well. He was kneeling on the ground, shaking hand-to-paw with a samurai creature, either a lizard or a dinosaur, I couldn't tell, with tan fur and black armor studded with purple jewels. He wore a decorated trinket atop his head, etched with unrecognizable intricate symbols.

"You are the ones," Slayerdramon said in a hushed tone behind us. I'd almost forgotten he was there. All six of us turned to face him. There was an awestruck look on his face. "You are the ones who will bring peace to the Digital World."

"This Digital World thing," the boy said, "what is it?"

Slayerdramon waved his hand. "Later," he said. "Introductions first, so I will know who I am addressing." He pointed, with one gleaming claw, straight at me. "You start."

"Masaaki Suzuki," I said. "And this is...Lunamon. Right?" Lunamon smiled and nodded. I held up the device. "What is this thing? A watch?"

Slayerdramon ignored me. "You next," he said to Aya.

"Aya Li," Aya said.

"Dorumon," said Dorumon.

Slayerdramon nodded at our remaining companion. The boy raised himself off from the ground, brushing his black hair out of his eyes. "Shiro Fujiwara," he said. "This is Ryuudamon."

"And now," Slayerdramon said, "I will tell you about this world."

* * *

"Let me get this straight," I said slowly, "This is the Night organization, and your opponent is the Day organization."

Slayerdramon nodded. "Correct."

"And you've both been in battle for a long time," Aya interjected. "Digimon all over this world have been allying themselves with either one or the other."

"Yes."

Shiro frowned. "Why?"

"We are in search of...sacred stones, if you will," Slayerdramon said.

Before I knew what I was doing, I blurted out, "What is with all the stones?"

Slayerdramon fixed me with a steely gaze; Lunamon giggled. "Patience," the giant dragon growled.

"Yes, sir."

I settled back down on the ground, feeling like a child who'd just been told off by a parent. Slayerdramon had finished explaining what Digimon were, and what the Digital World was, and was going on to tell us why we were here.

"They are called," Slayerdramon continued, "the Zenith Stones. There are twelve of them in this world. Brought together, these stones can grant one wish before disappearing."

"Kind of like a wishbone," Shiro muttered.

Slayerdramon was puzzled. "What is that?"

Shiro obviously didn't think that he'd spoken so loudly. He turned red. "Nothing."

"The prophecy," Slayerdramon said, continuing on as if nothing had happened, "claims that the chosen ones, having summoned there partners, will continue on to collect these stones. We, Night, wish to destroy these stones, to rid them off the face of this world. This will destroy the Digital World. The only way for this to happen is to get all twelve at once."

Immediately, the rest of us leaped to our feet and began shouting.

"Are you crazy—?"

"Why would you destroy a chance for a wish—"

"You're absolutely mental—"

"I did not get called out of a stone to—"

"I should join Day—"

"What is wrong with you—"

"ENOUGH!"

Slayerdramon's roar shook the cave we were in, dislodging stones and forcing us to dodge out of the way. We shut up.

Panting slightly, Slayerdramon said tightly, "We want to destroy the stones. Doing so will reset the Digital World. We want a brighter future for this place. There is no chance for it now. This is the only way."

"And what happens if Day gets all the Zenith Stones?" Shiro demanded.

Slayerdramon began to pace up and down. "They give the pretense of wishing for a _better future_. Hah! We do not know what they will wish for exactly, but it will not be good."

"And how do we know that you're telling the truth?" Dorumon asked, somewhat mockingly. For a Digimon who'd just popped out of the stone, and was talking to a big dragon, he was pretty brave. Or reckless.

"Take a step outside," Slayerdramon invited. "See how troubled the Digital World is for yourself."

"I believe you," I said firmly, standing up. And the truth was, I did. If he wasn't being truthful, then how could he talk so passionately about it? "And I'll help you on this...search for these Zenith Stones."

Lunamon rose as well. "I'm with Masaaki."

An overwhelming feeling of gratitude came over me. I'd just met this Digimon, and she was already taking my side. I could tell that we would get along great.

"Well, I've got nothing better to do," Aya said at length. "Might as well join in. Dorumon?"

"I'm not missing out on any fun," Dorumon said, grinning widely.

Shiro seemed to be contemplating it as we stared at him. Finally, he stood up. "I always wanted an adventure," he said, shrugging. "Get a chance to see how well I'd fare in the real world. Well, I guess it's the Digital World now. Ryuudamon?"

"I'm in it if you are," the Digimon answered decisively.

Slayerdramon seemed happy. "Excellent." Out of nowhere, a Digimon appeared and stepped up to Slayerdramon, one that I hadn't seen yet. Before I could get too close a look, the Digimon had beat a hasty retreat and vanished into the shadows.

"Was he eavesdropping?" Shiro sounded incredulous.

"Yes." Slayerdramon tossed me a heavy black cloth. "Waiting for your answer. Should you agree, he would give me these. None for the Digimon, I'm afraid."

"What are they?" Aya asked, holding her cloth-thing up.

"Cloaks," Slayerdramon replied. "To conceal your identity."

"Why?"

"So no one will know who you are." Slayerdramon looked expectantly at us. "Well, put them on."

We obediently did so.

Although heavy, the cloth was smooth, and not stuffy. This was turning out to be the weirdest day of my life. I asked Lunamon to pinch me, which she did.

It hurt.

Definitely not dreaming.


	4. Day: Elevators and Wristwatches

**Disclaimer:** Neither The Digital Gate or Romainu own Digimon.

* * *

_**Alias  
**__Day: Elevators and Wristwatches_

The scenery had change considerably. Instead of white walls, floors and ceilings, as soon as we had stepped out of the room with our partners, we'd stepped into a huge room with two long staircases going along the side. The railings were made of gold and it seemed like either we'd not been looking clearly before, or we'd missed this place entirely.

"Whoa," the three of us said, looking around.

"Where are we?" Sikke asked. His partner, a green monkey with red markings and a leopard print sort of toga named Monmon, was jumping up on his shoulders to have a better look.

"The Day Organization's Great Hall," Wizarmon answered pointing out a door below the right set of stairs. "That's where we hold meetings for our organization and where we plan out strategies. Over there-," he turned his eyes to the door on the left. "-is the door to the grounds. This place can protect you as long as you stay inside. When you leave to go out on missions, you're on your own. I think you'll be fine though."

"Missions?" I asked with a questioning glance. My partner Coronamon, an orange-red-ish lion looking digimon with metal bands holding red jewels placed on his head, arms and legs and a mane that looked like fire, was looking up with the same kind of look.

"Yes, missions," he answered looking around.

We waited a few moments for someone to say something. I looked at Sikke and Katsuo. Sikke seemed to be whispering something into Monmon's ear while Katsuo and his partner Bearmon, who quite honestly looked like a bear with a blue cap on, were waiting just like us.

"Follow me," Wizarmon said suddenly.

We were ushered back into the stone room and Wizarmon shut the door behind us.

"Wait, what're you doing?" Sikke asked suddenly.

"We're going up a floor," Wizarmon smiled at him.

* * *

Wizarmon ended up explaining that the stone room worked like a transportation room in the Day Organization.

"You see, if you want to get somewhere quickly, instead of walking around trying to figure out where you are, this room can sort of move you in the right direction to where you want to go."

"So…It's like an elevator?" Katsuo asked.

"A what?" Wizarmon looked puzzled.

I quickly explained. "It's a human made device that gets you to higher places."

"Oh, I see. Well, this room can only be accessed in certain places. I believe there are only ten places that this room goes to. It would be too much space to have anymore."

"So that's why this room is a lot smaller than the other rooms!" Sikke exclaimed, Monmon popping up on his head.

"You are correct. Not too big and not too small."

"So…Where are we heading now?" Bearmon asked crossing his arms.

"To the Day Organization Conference Room. The commander is there and is waiting for you."

"You won't be joining us?" Coronamon asked.

"No, I don't believe I will. I have other matters to attend to. But I think we'll meet up again." Wizarmon eyes showed a genuine smile and I couldn't help but give a little smile back.

The stone behind them gave off a powerful light that lasted only a view seconds. Wizarmon turned towards the door. "We're here."

Walking into the conference room, I was really shocked at how big it was. Even with a big, round table in the middle of the room, there was a lot of empty space. The ceiling wasn't too big, but it wasn't low either. The walls looked like they were made of stone and the place was illuminated by lanterns on the wall.

"Welcome chosen ones. I've been expecting you."

Sikke's eyes opened wide. "The-The swan…It talks!"

I closed my eyes in frustration. Idiot. You're fine with a monkey, a lion and a bear talking, even a guy who looks like a wizard, but you find a talking swan surprising?

The giant swan stood a little bit taller than me as it walked up from the other side of the table. Sikke's outburst made it have a amused look on its face. It turned to face Wizarmon. "Thank you for bringing them here Wizarmon. That will be all." Its voice sounded feminine.

"Yes, Swanmon," he said before turning to leave.

Wizarmon stopped before entering the stone room, and dashed back to Katsuo who was closest. When I glanced back, I thought I saw Wizarmon slip something into his hands, which Katsuo immediately shoved in his pocket before Wizarmon dashed off again.

I was looking confused until I heard Swanmon behind me.

"Is something the matter?"

That was when I realized she had asked for us to sit down. "Oh, I'm fine. I'm Minori by the way."

Swanmon smiled gently and I wasn't sure how this gentle swan could be commander of the Day Organization. "And I'm Swanmon. Now please take a seat. I have much to explain."

I heard Sikke groan. "No, please! I can't take anymore of this explaining! When do we get to save the world like the game told us we would?"

* * *

"You each have your own regiments that I have formed for you. Minori, you have regiment 31, Katsuo has regiment 26 and Sikke had regiment 67. Each of these regiments has willing asked for you to become their leader. They will be looking for the stones that we will need."

"The Zenith Stones?" Katsuo asked, Bearmon by his side.

"Yes, the Zenith stones. Together they will give us the power to make a wish," Swanmon said.

"What do you want to wish for?" Monmon asked curiously.

Swanmon hung her head low. "For years we have been at war with the Night Organization. Digimon have been picking sides and it's been complete chaos. We, the digimon of the Day Organization, have wanted peace for awhile now, to be able to end the war and make the Digital World a better place."

Yes, I thought. The gentle creature wishes for peace. I knew I would see that coming.

"So…We need to collect the Zenith Stones, and then wish?" I asked

"Well, it's a bit more complicated than that," Swanmon sheepishly. "But, I'd rather not get into the details until we have all the stones. Today, I just want you to meet your regiments and get comfortable here in the Day Organization. Once you've done that, you may go home."

My face brightened up. "Home?" I exclaimed. I noticed Sikke had even jumped out of his seat.

"You mean we can go back?" he asked excitedly.

"Yes, but we will call you back to help us in the Digital World when we need you. We have almost all our regiments looking for the Zenith Stones, and I'm sure Night has their regiments on the lookout too. We send spies every now and again to collect information from Night."

"But, home? You mean we can really head back?" Sikke asked eagerly.

Swanmon nodded. "Yes, you can. But you must promise to help us. You are our only chosen ones after all."

We were silent then, except for Sikke jabbering to Monmon how that when they got back to his house, they could watch some adventure movies to see what they were in for. I rolled my eyes. Yeah, sure he was my age, but he acted like a ten-year-old.

I noticed Katsuo shift around in his chair, mumbling something to Bearmon who looked puzzled. I tried listening to their conversation while Swanmon was interrupted by a fierce looking ninja warrior with a red mask to cover his eyes.

"But…there's nothing there for me. It's not that I don't want to…There are people I just don't want to see."

My eyes widened with realization. "You don't want to go home?" I whispered.

He jumped a little as if he'd been caught doing something bad. He glancing over at me and then looked down sadly. "Honestly, I'm not sure. But…I'd rather be somewhere we people appreciate me."

His words reminded me of when we were speaking in the stone room. _To be needed…wouldn't that be nice?_

Ah, I thought. So that's what you meant.

We sat there in silence. I didn't know what to say after that. It was Swanmon who brought me out of my thoughts.

"Minori, I want you to meet Musyamon, the leader of regiment 31."

Regiment 31. Wasn't that my regiment?

I stood up and nodded. "Nice to meet you. I'm Minori."

"Musyamon." His voice was very grunt like and low. "I would be glad to get to know you more, but there are other matters at stake. We've found a stone and would like you and your friends to come investigate it with us."

My eyes opened a little wider and I raised an eyebrow. "Already?"

He nodded and grinned. "We've been looking for Zenith Stones long before you guys arrived."

I nodded. "Okay. Well then-."

"How 'bout tomorrow? Early morning? We've learned a lot today and I'm sort of tired," Sikke said, standing up next to me.

I thought about that and thought that was reasonable. Musyamon was still obviously waiting for my command.

"I suppose we should rest up. How far are we going?"

"Not too far, but it could take us a day or two not knowing how fast you three are," Musyamon mused.

"Okay then, it's settled. We'll rest up tonight and leave in the morning."

With that we got up, bowed at each other, and Musyamon left. Swanmon turned to us.

"I suppose I should send for someone to show you to your rooms."

We were eventually escorted back into the stone room by a Yukidarumon, who was a giant snowman type thing. "I'll be taking you to your rooms now. Day Organization Chambers."

"Wizarmon said something like that too," Katsuo murmured.

"Is that how you get around?" Monmon piped up.

Yukidarumon nodded. "It's a command to get the room moving. It's powered by the stone over there."

We all seemed to glance back at the stone.

"Oh."

We stood there in silence until Yukidarumon opened the door to the all white hallways. "This way please."

Right back where we started, I thought.

"Now, the two boys shall sleep in this room," she brought them to the end of the hallway and gestered to the door on the left. Monmon looked up with big eyes and Yukidarumon smiled. "And their digimon too."

"And…I suppose we get this room?" Coronamon asked.

Yukidarumon nodded. "Yep. Make yourselves comfortable. We'll call for you in the morning."

A thought popped into my head. "Wait, what about going home? Won't our parents wonder where we've been?"

Yukidarumon thought about this. Silence filled the hallway for a bit, the question grabbing everyone's interest. "Well, I don't think time passes there the same way it does here. But, I do remember Snimon saying that time doesn't pass here in the Digital World. When you return home, it should be around the same time you left. He's normally the smart one, so I would like to think that is correct."

"I see. Okay then. Goodnight everyone," I waved to everyone else before opening my room and heading in for some sleep.

* * *

I could see him. We were messing around in our apartment, playing weird games he'd gotten from someone for dirt cheap. The boards were torn a bit at the parts where they folded and the pieces were bent in odd shapes.

We were smiling and having fun. He'd move a piece and then I'd move a piece.

It was all happy and peaceful.

But, all of a sudden, he looked angry. He was saying my name over and over again.

"Minori."

I shook my head as he turned to leave.

"Minori!"

"NO!"

I shot up in my bed, panting, eyes wide open.

Crash.

"Minori! Ouch!"

I blinked and looked over at Sikke with confusion. Why was he lying on the floor and not in his own bed? Wait, why was he in my room?

"Sikke?" I pushed back the covers to help him up. I'd fallen asleep in my clothes.

"You startled me. I didn't think you'd spring up like that," he muttered, getting up off the floor.

I blinked. "How'd you fall?"

He looked flustered. "Well, you see, you startled me, and I sort of, um, well stepped back and, uh, well…I tripped over the rug."

I couldn't help myself. I howled with laughter.

He blushed in embarrassment and glared at me. "Hey, it's not funny! It hurt!"

I continued laughing.

Sikke stood up and crossed his arms, looking down at me. "I guess you don't want to know what I came to give you then, do you."

I stopped my laughing and looked at him in confusion. "You came to give me something?"

He nodded and sat down on the bed, picking something he'd dropped on the floor. "Here you go. Katsuo got these from Wizarmon earlier. Katsuo says Wizarmon called them digivices. They appeared in the stone room earlier when he left us with Swanmon."

"Digivices?" I flipped it around in my hand. It looked more like a high-tech watch. "Um…Thanks."

"You see, I thought that one would be yours. It's orange," he said as-a-matter-of-factly.

I raised an eyebrow. "And it being orange concerns me…why?"

He lay back. "I don't know. It just reminded me of Coronamon."

"Oh," Minori murmured, glancing over at the little lion who was sleeping against the wall. She smiled back at Sikke. "Thanks."

"No problem." He stood up and stretched, looking at his own wrist watch/digivice. "Well, better get to sleep. We've got a lot to do tomorrow."

He walked towards the door with a yawn. And just as he shut the door behind him, I called out, "Goodnight!"

The door was shut, but I was sure he could hear me. All because Coronamon woke up with a start asking who was screeching to the moon.

* * *

We started the day bright and early. I was the first to wake up among the six of us, digimon included, and I was packing stuff I had found in the closet opposite of my bed into a small bag a small digimon had given me.

"Musyamon said to pack as little as possible," it had said. "He also said to not be late."

I won't be late, I thought. If anything, I'll be really, really early.

I woke Coronamon with the noise of stuff moving about. He had to blink his eyes a few seconds to process that I was in new clothing and was flinging things into a pack.

"Um…good morning," he mumbled, yawning and getting to his feet. He rubbed his eyes. "Anything I can help with?"

I looked up from my packing. I was dressed in a red, sleeveless turtleneck and a murky golden jacket. I had found an old pair of blue jeans to put on as well. The digivice was on my wrist and ready to be put to use.

"I guess you can start by finding some food. Nothing big though. Small things."

Coronamon nodded and went for the door. "If I'm not back in a half-hour, just meet up by the great hall. I think that's where everyone's meeting."

"Okay!" I watched as he slipped through the door and then looked at my bag. An extra red turtleneck, this time long-sleeved for cold weather and some sneakers if something were to happen to mine. The food would take up the rest of the bag.

I didn't hear any commotion from the other room and began to wonder how deep those two slept. Better go wake them up, I thought slinging the bag over my back and crossing the hall to bang on their door.

"I'm coming in!" I hollered.

I opened the door to find Katsuo sitting on the bed with Bearmon, all packed and ready to go. Sikke, however, was just waking up. "Wha-? Minori? What're you doing in here?"

I glanced over at Katsuo. "You didn't bother to wake him up?" I asked. He shook his head.

"I didn't want to risk being pounded again."

"Pounded?" I rolled my eyes. "Honestly, I don't think Sikke could harm you."

Katsuo looked uncertain, but didn't say anymore. Sikke, though, agreed whole-heartedly. "I couldn't harm a fly. Compared to my friend Nao, I'm a wimp!"

'Couldn't', I noted. Not 'wouldn't'.

"Get dressed and packed. We're leaving in…" I glanced at my digivice. "Twenty minutes."

"Wait, it tells time?" he asked.

"Yeah, it's a watch. What'd you think it was going to do?"

"Well, thinking of all those digimon things I used to watch and play, digivices normally mean digivolving…And, yeah."

I blinked and faintly remembered what he was talking about. "Oh yeah…Think that'll happen though?"

He grinned. "You sound doubtful."

I huffed and turned towards the door. "We're meeting in the Great Hall in twenty minutes, okay? I'm going down there now. See ya."

I closed the door behind me and ran down the hallway to the stone room, trying to remember how it worked again. "Now, what was it again? Day Organization? Day Organization Great Hall?"

The stone began to glow and the door shut behind me. I jumped and it took me a few seconds to realize I'd activated the stone room. I smiled. I'd gotten it right. Ha! I wanted to bet on how long it would take Sikke to remember how the stone room worked. I didn't doubt Katsuo though. I was almost sure he'd remember it. He seemed to be one of those people who could.

I waited not too long until the stone shone a bright light and opened the door.

The Great Hall wasn't that busy that morning, except for the occasional wandering digimon running back and forth between the two rooms. I spotted Musyamon by the door that led outside, talking to a small, cat-like digimon that I faintly remembered as Tailmon.

I walked down the staircase and Musyamon saw my approach.

"Good morning Minori. Sleep well?"

I nodded. "Have you seen Coronamon?"

He shook his head. "No. Is he lost?"

"Nope. He went to go get us some food. We're supposed to meet back here," I said, looking down at the Tailmon beside him. "Who's this?"

Tailmon looked up at Musyamon as if waiting for permission and he nodded. It turned to face me with a grin. "I'm Tailmon of regiment 31 ma'am. I'm more of a helper though really. I gather food and what-not and join in fights when we run into trouble."

I nodded and stuck out my hand. "Nice to meet you. I'm Minori."

She took my hand and shook it. "Yes, I know."

Musyamon was looking around as we began talking about where we were heading. "So, um, Minori? Did your friends say they were coming?"

I looked up from my conversation and looked up towards where the stone room was. "They should be here any minute. I wouldn't put it past them to be late though."

Musyamon looked at me funny. "How long have you known those two?"

I blinked and looked down in thought. "Hmm…Wow, it seems like a week, but I only met them yesterday."

Musyamon nodded, in thought. "You seem to know them real well for only having knowing them for a day."

I shook my head. Sikke's happiness, Katsuo's want to be needed; I didn't know that much about them. "No. There are still things I have to learn."

"Minori!" I heard Katsuo yell, as he was running down the steps with Bearmon close behind.

"We're ready!" Bearmon exclaimed.

They came to a halt panting. Katsuo bent over, catching his breath. "Are we late?" Bearmon asked, eyes wandering to Musyamon.

Musyamon shook his head. "You two are fine." He looked up and around the room. "Where's the other one?"

"Hello everyone! We're ready! Wait for us!"

I shook my head as Sikke ran down the stairs, Monmon holding on for dear life. "Wah! Sikke, Sikke! Slow down, slow down!" he exclaimed. I noticed Coronamon dashing along behind him with some bread in his hands.

They stopped in front of us. I turned to Musyamon. "That's all of us."

He nodded and looked puzzled for a bit.

"What?" I asked.

He grinned, crossing his arms. "How would you guys feel riding a dragon?"

* * *

As it turns out, there were two Airdramon in Regiment 31. It took us awhile to decide who would ride with whom, and we ended up with Katsuo and I on one of them and Sikke with Tailmon on the other.

"This is just so you'll keep up with us. Tailmon normally rides Airdramon anyways," he told us.

Now that we were outside of the base, and I got to get a good look at what the Day Organization actually looked like. I was really confused though. It was a very small building built into a cliff. I figured there was more building built in the cliff than out, just for protection. The cliff was by a forest, but I could see not too far from where we were a desert.

Somebody poked me in the back and I looked behind me from where I was sitting on the Airdramon. "Yes Katsuo?"

"Musyamon's trying to talk to you," he said.

We were sitting up on the Airdramon now, me holding onto one of Airdramon's horns while Katsuo was holding on to the other. Bearmon and Coronamon chose to sit in front of us near where Airdramon's skull ended.

I looked over at Musyamon. "Yes?"

He looked very stern. "Now, I don't want you messing around or anything, okay? This is very serious. Swanmon will be getting reports and what-not of how this mission went and evaluate you guys on how well you are for the organization. Not to mention evaluate us in Regiment 31. We've been hoping for some more respect among the organization for some time now and I don't want this mission to be a failure all because one of you didn't take it seriously."

I nodded. "Okay then. Hear that Katsuo and Sikke? Seriousness." I glared at Sikke's grin. "Or else."

Musyamon nodded. "Okay then, we've stalled enough. Ready Airdramon?"

They both nodded. The Airdramon I was riding spoke to us. "Now, no kicking or anything, okay? It'll be a lot easier without all that."

"Okay," I shouted back.

Its wings began to flap and slowly we began to rise into the air. I held on tight. We were passing trees and my foot could probably reach down and touch the branches from where I was.

We were rising, higher and higher. I noticed Musyamon had hopped on the other Airdramon and was standing near its skull. Tailmon was at his side. She looked annoyed.

I noticed she turned back to Sikke, who was yelling and looked so frightened it was a wonder how he held on.

"Quit your yelling! You're not going to die!"

Sikke thought otherwise. I thought I saw Monmon roll his eyes from where he sat next to Tailmon. I couldn't help but laugh.

We flew for a while over the desert, until we came to a sort of oasis to stop for a drink. I shared the bread that Coronamon had found with everyone and then we continued on.

It didn't take long until we got to the comfort of trees again, and for that I was glad. I'd already taken off my yellow jacket and tied it around my waist, and tried to fan myself for a bit. Katsuo looked tired while he sat next to Bearmon near Airdramon's skull.

I tuned out what everyone was saying and thought of possible outcomes of this mission.

I was brought back to what we were doing when I was addressed by Airdramon.

"We're approaching our destination. Tailmon and Musyamon think it'd be better if you travel on foot the rest of the way."

I nodded. There was silence.

"Minori?"

I looked over at Airdramon's head, realizing that he couldn't see my nod. "Oh, yeah. Okay."

There wasn't much to do but to say 'okay'. I had no clue where we were, and no directions to get back.

We landed, Tailmon saying to the two Airdramon to wait and stay hidden.

We walked around for awhile, passing tree by tree, and I slowly lost track of where we were.

I had gotten rather sleepy riding on Airdramon from sitting still for so long, like I used to whenever we took long car rides.

When I began to yawn, and my legs stopped their tingling feeling, Tailmon halted.

She looked up at Musyamon, frustrated. "Musyamon," she said. "I'm positive it was in this area. I just know it was."

I glanced up, but Katsuo beat me to the questioning. "Wait, the stone? Don't you know where it is?"

Bearmon was by his side, looking completely exhausted. "So, we've been walking all this time 

for nothing?"

"Are we lost?"

"Where'd you think it was?

"Wait a minute, what about the stone? Didn't you find it before?"

"Tailmon-"

"Tailmon!"

"Silence!"

We looked over at Musyamon, who was frustrated now too. He looked at Tailmon, with speculating eyes. "Tailmon, you said it was around this area, so I trust your judgment. However," he glanced at us. "There is no reason to get all jumpy just because we aren't able to find it again. We all must remain calm in situations like this and put our best efforts into our goal.

"Now, Tailmon, the rest of our regiments never saw this Zenith Stone that you saw. When you tried to take us to it last time, we weren't able to find it either," he seemed to be saying this to provide us with information and get information out of Tailmon. What a smart guy. "Are you sure it was a Zenith Stone you saw? Any old stone doesn't count as a Zenith Stone, remember. Describe what you saw so we can help you."

Tailmon composed herself again, although I could see she herself was desperately trying to calm herself. "I know it was a Zenith Stone, I just know it. I was a huge stone. And it glowed. It had some sort of aura that was drawing it to me. I knew it was a Zenith Stone. I could just feel it."

"Like the stone that powers the Stone Room?" I asked.

"The what?" Tailmon asked, confused, then she relaxed. "Oh, you mean the Moving Room. Um, well, sort of. I'd say it's about the same size, but it was different. I can't explain it."

Musyamon nodded, and then thought of the possibilities. "Well, I suppose seeing as we have no idea where it is now, and there are only a certain number of us, not to mention that most of us will probably lose their way and get lost if we split up to look, I say we should head back and get reinforcements to help scavenge for the stone. Until they find it, we probably should look in another area."

Tailmon thought about that, and nodded slowly, looking like she'd done something completely wrong and she was in trouble. "Okay. Let's call for Airdramon then."

Musyamon nodded, paused and then looked at us. "I think it'd be better if you went home."

"Home?" Sikke asked.

Musyamon nodded. "I can show you how, if you want."

I was frustrated now. With no Zenith Stone, I was feeling a bit like Bearmon in the sense that I felt like we'd come all this way for nothing. I was a bit upset but I didn't show it too much.

Home would be a better place to think anyways.

* * *

**Romainu:** So, I know we haven't updated in a while. But, we got the next chapter up, right?

The Digital Gate writes next, and as soon as she's done editing that I'll put it up.

School's just around the corner for me. I have a few more weeks left, and the closer I get to the first day of school, the more desperation I have to do something fun with the rest of my summer. So, me and my brother are going off to do things at random. Although I could probably start typing up the chapter after The Digital Gate's, I probably won't get really into it for another week. So, yeah...

Anyways, thanks for the reviews we have so far! Keep reviewing please. I always love feedback on stories.


	5. Night: Meeting the Regiments

**Disclaimer:** Neither I or The Digital Gate own Digimon.

* * *

_**Alias  
**__Meeting the Regiments_

I slammed the door shut behind me. "I'm home," I shouted. "Hello? Okaa-san? Minori? Anyone?" When no one answered, I shrugged. "Guess I've got the whole house to myself, then."

The door opened before I finished talking. "Don't count on it."

I turned around to find my twin sister standing behind me, lugging a huge paper bag stuffed to its brim. "Hey Minori."

"Go help with the groceries," was all she said in reply.

Scowling, I went to do so. Minori had been grumpy ever since she got out of her room yesterday. I figured it was probably because Alias paired her up with a Digimon she didn't like or set her up on a silly journey. Speaking of Alias…no time had passed at all when I'd returned from the Digital World.

_The Digital World_. It was weird just thinking about it. Instead of going on a journey like the advertisement had said, I'd stepped into a whole new place, with _actual_ Digimon. And I'd met two other humans: Aya Li, and Shiro Fujiwara. Aya was from Kitakyushu, and Shiro was from Nagasaki, as he'd told us right before we left for the human world, _my_ world.

Shaking my head, I resumed my trek to our car outside.

My mom, frail with brown hair, glanced up. "Masaaki! Could you help me with this?" Without even waiting for my answer, she dumped a huge, heavy box into my arms. My knees buckled. I let out a groan.

As I struggled to the door, my mom walked alongside me, chatting away. "So, did you have fun in your Shogi club?"

"No," I grunted. "I got beaten again."

"Oh, that's too bad." My mom ruffled my hair. "You'll win next time." She opened the door for me and I dropped the box—right on my foot. I howled and she said, "Ooh—want me to get something for you?"

"Nope," I said, wincing. "I'm doing great."

"If you're sure." My mom was still frowning as she walked away, like she didn't believe me.

That was okay though. She hardly ever took my word.

I leaned against the wall, kicking off my shoes and massaging my toes. Minori watched me, and I could swear I saw a smirk on her face. "So," I said, desperate to change the subject in case she started teasing me, "how's Alias going for you?"

Minori shrugged, her eyes briefly narrowing. "Fine." Then she turned and stared in the direction of our mom's bedroom, unusually eager to change the subject. Hah! I was right. She must've gotten a stinky partner. "You know, I liked her better before she and otou-san got a divorce."

"Yeah, well, what can you do?" I set my injured foot on the ground and tested it. Not too bad. "Last I heard, he was off with some tightly-clothed, squeaky voiced woman. 'Kaa-san deserves way better than him."

"True."

We stood in the hall for a little while longer.

At length, I said, "I'd better go do homework now. And touch up on my Shogi skills while I'm at it."

Minori did smirk now. "Good luck with that."

My eyebrows narrowed, I stomped off, pausing to throw over my shoulder, "At least I can beat you in Go!"

Her response was to chuck my shoe at me.

Grumpy old hag.

* * *

"Hey!"

The second I stepped through the door of my room, Moonmon jumped at me. And then she started bouncing around me in circles. "So, did you have fun at that school place?" she asked. "Was it boring, was it great, how was it?"

I set down my backpack, half-exasperated, half-amused. Moonmon, who had appeared in my room instead of Lunamon when we'd returned—scaring the wits out of me—was shaped like a purple teardrop connected to another teardrop with several anemones sticking out of the crown of her head. "Are all Baby II Digimon like this?"

Moonmon paused. "Some," she said, "but not all." And then she resumed bouncing once more.

Rolling my eyes, I set about trying to find my CD copy of Alias. I had taken it out to play another game, and I had thought I'd tossed it on my bed but it wasn't there anymore….

I started chucking pillows and books every which way. Where was it? I had to find it—and soon. Yesterday, we had all agreed on arriving one and a half hours after school in Hokkaido ended—I had no idea what time that was in Kitakyushu and Nagasaki.

And it was almost time to go.

Where could it be?

And then I spotted it—in my pillow case.

I snatched it up, then remembered: we didn't need it to gain access to the Digital World, according to Slayerdramon. Groaning, I grabbed my cloak, throwing the CD next to my computer just in case. "Moonmon, let's go!"

She bounded over to me. I took out my device or _digivice_ as Slayerdramon had called it. We, the humans, had wanted to call it something else, but we hadn't decided yet. I strapped it around my wrist and held it up.

It was like a watch, except the screen part was raised more, kinda like a mini platform. And all along the platform walls were letters inscribed in gold. The same kind of letter decorated the edges of the watch, and the strap, only in silver. And if you looked closely enough at it, you could see tiny little drawings of Digimon etched into the whole digivice.

Pretty cool, huh?

"Set coordinates for the Night base," I commanded.

There was a slight shimmer on the screen of the digivice. _'Coordinate set.'_

I was unsure of what to do next; Slayerdramon had only suggested trying the first part and to see if it worked, and now I was stuck. On a whim, I glanced towards the CD. But words popped out of my mouth before I could even lift up my hand: "Holo Gate, Activate!" And then my eyes shot open.

A miniature world rose up out of the device's screen. It shone in the sunlight, filtering blue-green light, rotating slightly. Something told me to grab it; so I did. More words came tumbling out, like instinct. "Digital World, Integrate!"

I pressed—well, shoved is a better word—the tiny world into the computer screen.

There was a wave of darkness.

And the next thing I knew, Lunamon and I were in the Night central hall, blinking stupidly.

A few moments of silence.

"Well that was fun," Lunamon said brightly.

* * *

Aya sulked in the corner, not talking to anyone or even looking up. I'd tried to say hi to her, but all she did was ignore me. Lunamon leaned towards Dorumon. "What's the matter with her?" she whispered, but Aya heard her anyway and whipped around so fast we all scooted back.

"You want to know?" Aya's eyes were starting to creep me out. "I'll tell you why. I failed my entrance exam." No one said anything.

"It was the best high school in Kitakyushu, and I failed it. I studied for it day after day, I worked my butt off…and today you know what I found out?"

None of us answered.

"I _FAILED_!" she shouted. "I failed, dammit, I failed the test! The best high school in Kitakyushu, the one that would help me reach my goals, and the one I wanted to go to! DAMMIT!"

Her voice rang out and rebounded off the walls.

"Um," Shiro swallowed noisily. "Aya, calm down…"

"NO!"

And she curled up and burst into tears.

We exchanged helpless glances; Dorumon patted his partner's head soothingly and glared at the rest of us like it was our fault. After a few minutes of Aya's choked sobs and Dorumon's murmured words, Shiro got up, fished in his pockets and pulled out a crumpled tissue.

"Look," he said gently to Aya. "You failed. There's nothing you can do about it. Accept it and move on. There are a bunch of other high schools you can go to. Try for those. And who knows? Maybe they'll turn out even better."

For the longest time, Aya said nothing. Then she took the tissue and blew her nose. "Thanks," she croaked.

Shiro smiled. "Anytime."

Slayerdramon opened the door and stared at us. "What is going on?"

"Chit chat," Lunamon said cheerfully as Shiro moved back to his seat and Aya scrubbed at her eyes. "What's up? You don't look so good."

Slayerdramon shut the door behind him. "About four nights ago, Day caught wind of a Zenith Stone," he said, his voice low. Ignoring our shocked looks, he went on. "Luckily, it was a false alarm, but this means we'll have to be even more alert than ever."

"Wait," Shiro said. "How many days have gone by since we were last here?"

Slayerdramon frowned. "Maybe six?" he guessed.

"Time passes differently then," Aya mused to herself, still hiccupping slightly, which we all politely ignored. "When Dorumon and I got back to the human world, no time had passed at all."

"Same here," Lunamon echoed. Ryuudamon merely nodded.

Seeing as Slayerdramon wanted to continue, I prompted, "What did you want to tell us?"

Slayerdramon looked at all of us in turn. "Like I said, we all want to be even more prepared. We cannot risk letting Day obtain all the stones and the wish. As such, I want to assign all of you regiments."

"_What?_"

* * *

"Here we are."

Slayerdramon laid a clawed hand on a slab of rock. It flashed once, a dull red, before sliding upwards. Gesturing for us to follow, Slayerdramon stepped through the hole in the wall into what looked like a brightly lit room.

Lunamon and I went through first, before slamming to a halt. Digimon were everywhere.

"Wow," Aya said, stepping up beside me. Her eyes were still red, but I pretended not to notice.

"Are these all one regiment?" Shiro asked, brow furrowing.

"No," Slayerdramon called back, too busy giving orders to the Coredramon we'd seen yesterday.

"Obviously," Dorumon muttered, but Shiro still heard him.

"Want to say that again?" he challenged.

"Sure." Dorumon put his mouth by Shiro's ear. "OBVIOUSLY!"

Shiro jerked away. "Listen you…"

Luckily, at that moment, Slayerdramon came back. "If you two are done," he said, eyeing Dorumon and Shiro, "you will meet your regiments now."

We followed Slayerdramon to wherever he was going. "This is going to go _great_," Dorumon said, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

Heads turned as we walked past. I suddenly felt conscious of how my cloak seemed like a dress, with its constant billowing. But I brushed it off and waved. A few waved back. The rest just grinned.

"You look like an idiot," Aya said.

At least she was back to normal.

"No he doesn't," Lunamon retorted. "At least he's _wearing_ his cloak. Shiro too," she added as an afterthought. Shiro shot her a sarcastic look that clearly said, "_Thanks._"

"I feel like a complete doofus with it on," Aya shot back. "I'll wear it when I go out, not when I'm in here."

Lunamon didn't get a chance to reply. Slayerdramon had reached the back of the room—I briefly wondered about how many rooms the Night headquarters had—and had stepped through a dark curtain. His hand poked back out, indicating we should follow. So we went in.

And inside, we found even more Digimon, all with different facial expressions. One third had the looks of cunning crooks, sly and slippery. One third had looks of terror, glancing around like nervous wrecks. The remaining Digimon had no expression at all, except for their cold, calculating eyes.

"_What_ a freak show," Dorumon muttered from behind me. Aya bopped him on the head, although not as hard as she usually would have done. I rolled my eyes.

"Regiment 24," Slayerdramon called.

The wimpy Digimon, well, I really shouldn't call them that, even it if was true, stepped forward. Their eyes kept darting around, mainly for the exit; they were all sorts of Digimon. There was a colorful dinosaur, a metal sunflower, a humanoid Digimon made of fire, a serpent, and a dragon.

"Aya and Dorumon, you two will lead this regiment," said Slayerdramon. "Good luck." He sounded like he meant it. Aya only screwed up her eyes and nodded. I didn't know what she was thinking, but Dorumon's face clearly said that they'd gotten the worst lot.

Slayerdramon beckoned for the next regiment. "Regiment 43."

The cold-eyed ones took Regiment 24's place. This time, there was a big dinosaur Digimon, a flying dragon-thing with tattered wings, a one-eyed dinosaur with a huge right arm, a two-winged angel, and a lobster.

"Shiro and Ryuudamon," Slayerdramon said, casting them a glance, "this is your regiment. Good luck."

Shiro frowned; Ryuudamon merely nodded.

Which left the tricksters for me.

"Regiment 92," Slayerdramon said.

They came forward. I sized them up, and in return, they stared at me and Lunamon. There was a great blue-white wolf, a cat, a mini-lion, a big green bug, and a ghost. Dorumon was right: it _was_ a freak show.

"Masaaki and Lunamon," Slayerdramon said, even though there was no need, "this will be your regiment. Good luck." He sounded like he almost pitied me. "Beyond this room is the training ground. As soon as you all have met your regiment, please proceed there." And with that, he swept from the room.

Lunamon and I trudged forward to Regiment 92, our regiment. "So," I said, as soon as we reached each other, "I'm Masaaki Suzuki, and this is Lunamon. What about you?"

For a moment, no one looked like they wanted to speak. Finally, the cat Digimon spoke. She had two tails ringed with purple, a golden ring hanging from shoulder to waist, an earring in her left ear, and a strange red mark on her forehead. "I'm Tailmon X."

The wolf was next. He was huge. "I am Garurumon." His fur was white, striped with blue jagged lighting bolts. I felt tiny next to him, and I'm sure he felt like a giant next to me, not to mention Lunamon.

"Leormon," the mini-lion said.

"Snimon," the green bug said in a hiss.

The ghost was last, wearing a witch's hat. "Soulmon. I don't like you."

"That's great," I said. "Well, then, let's head off."

Glancing around, I saw that Aya, Dorumon, Shiro, and Ryuudamon had finished as well. None of them looked too happy, but they nodded at me, and we set off, walking down a brightly lit corridor lined with black stones.

"How's your regiment?" I muttered to Aya.

She grimaced. "They're…well, cowardly." She shook her head. "I don't get it. The dinosaur, Commandramon, he's run from at least five fights. And Seadramon is scary enough, but he's the biggest wimp of them all."

"Tough luck," Lunamon said.

"What about you two?" Dorumon asked, glancing over at Shiro and Ryuudamon.

"Regiment 43 is stuck-up," Shiro said, "and they're known as the 'silent and the deadly' to the rest of Night. They're unsociable, and think everyone else is below them. And the worst part is, they had no trouble telling us all of this."

"Not very friendly either," Ryuudamon grumbled.

"What about you two?" Aya wanted to know.

Dorumon brightened. "Is Regiment 92 dysfunctional too?"

"Actually…" I broke off. I glanced at Lunamon, but she shrugged helplessly. "We have no idea. They look sneaky, but that's about it."

"Guess we'll see during training, then," Shiro remarked.

We neared a pair of double doors. I pushed them open. My mouth dropped. It was huge. The training grounds stretched from where we stood to so far away, that I couldn't see it. At least twelve soccer fields could have fit in it. And the ceiling was pretty far up, too, with ropes and poles dangling from above. We must have been way underground.

"Welcome to the training grounds," Garurumon rumbled. "Or, as we call it, the NTG."

"Stands for Night Training Grounds," Soulmon put in helpfully, eyeing me. "You know, in case you couldn't figure it out." He sniggered slightly.

I didn't let it faze me. "I could, thanks."

"Well," Aya said reluctantly, "we'd better split up. C'mon, Regiment 24, we'll start with target practice." She and Dorumon headed off for the section with dummies in the distance. Her regiment straggled after, looking completely unwilling, until Dorumon got around behind and began chasing them.

Then they ran.

At least it was in the right direction.

The dinosaur with blue stripes and a brown head from Regiment 43 broke the silence. "Listen," he said to Shiro and Ryuudamon, "we do not need any training whatsoever from you. We are strong enough to take down the most invincible opponent."

"You don't say," Shiro said flatly. "That's great. Too bad I don't believe you."

The dinosaur seethed. "Would you care to say that again?"

"Oh, look," Shiro said. "I got a reaction. Well, luckily for you, Ryuudamon and I weren't thinking of using these grounds for your physical training. You won't be punching through walls, or swinging from ropes, or whatever."

"Good," the dinosaur said.

"Instead," Shiro continued, as the dinosaur had never interrupted, "we'll be going around and meeting other Digimon. Doesn't that sound like fun?"

Silence.

Regiment 43 exploded.

"_WHAT?_"

Everyone within hearing range turned to look.

"Yes," Ryuudamon said, looking amused. "We will work on your social etiquette. You will greet every Digimon you meet with complete friendliness. No physical work at all, doesn't that sound like fun? Oh, you want to say something, Greymon?"

The dinosaur, Greymon, was spluttering. "W-what," he choked, "t-this is an-an _outrage_! A put-down on our abilities!"

Shiro shrugged. "It was your idea. You didn't want to train physically, so we'll be doing this instead. Anyone who doesn't try his hardest will have to hug Slayerdramon the next time they see him."

"_WHAT?_"

It was all I could do to keep from laughing. Shiro was good.

Greymon advanced on Shiro. "Listen, human," he said heatedly, "you will not push us around. You are not our leader, you cannot give us orders!"

"Oh, really?" Shiro said quietly, and everything went quiet. There was something in his eyes right then that made Greymon back away in a hurry. Regiment 43 suddenly looked afraid. "I didn't think so. Let's go."

When they had gone, Leormon, the mini-lion said, "Wow. Is your friend scary or what?"

"Well, they had it coming to them," Tailmon X said. "Snobs."

"Apart from that," I cut in, "let's start with…." I cast my eyes around, looking for the section with the least amount of Digimon. No use in crowding. "The stealth and speed section."

As soon as I had said that, Regiment 92's eyes lit up. "Yes!" they all chorused, and bustled off for the section, leaving me and Lunamon in the dust. We hurried after them and arrived, panting.

The stealth and speed section had many different courses to try. Currently, Regiment 92 was busy taking in all of them, chatting about their favorite ones. I was too winded to listen.

"Maybe we should have started with stretches first," I muttered.

"Too late now," Lunamon said cheerfully. She took in all of the courses, then called for attention. Regiment 92 turned to her.

Lunamon said, "Okay, as fast as you can, one at a time, run through those poles without touching any of them, as quietly as you can." She pointed at a set of poles jutting out from the ground, jabbing at the air every which way. "Line up."

They did so, Garurumon first in line.

"Ready, set, go!"

Garurumon shot through the obstacle, never once touching any of the poles. At once, spikes flew into the air from all different directions. His paws barely scraped the surface, and his sleek body, as big as it was, flexed easily. No projectile struck him.

He was done in ten seconds flat.

"Wow." That was all I could say.

"Next!" Lunamon called.

Soulmon floated forward.

"Ready, set, go!"

And then Soulmon zipped forward with more speed than I could imagine. He soared through the poles with ease, given his size, tumbling through the air to avoid the flying spikes. He finished in eleven seconds.

Tailmon X was next.

She raced easily through the course, nimbly moving out of the way of poles and spikes alike. She twisted in the air, and her movements on the ground seemed graceful, almost like dancing. She, like Garurumon, finished in ten seconds.

Then Snimon.

As big as he was, like Garurumon, he hurdled through the course, nothing obstructing his way, although he finished in fifteen seconds. Leormon, the best one, finished in seven, having run at a speed so fast, he looked like a blur.

"Wow," I said again. "That was amazing."

None of them even looked remotely tired. "Care to give it a shot?" Soulmon suggested, eyes glinting mischievously.

"Uh…."

"C'mon, Masaaki," Lunamon urged. "To be good leaders, we should always do what we tell others to." And she floated for the obstacle. Leormon counted her off, and Lunamon soared through the air.

She wasn't as fast or had as good reflexes as the rest, but she still made it through to the other side unharmed. It took her fifty seconds.

"Not bad," Tailmon X said with grudging approval. "Most newbies take at least two minutes and a half." She eyed me. "Your turn."

I gulped. Stealth was not my thing. Neither was speed. That was Minori. She was fast, I was a turtle. Well, not a turtle. I was average, but when Minori and I raced, she sure made me feel like one.

I took my place. This was not going to be good.

Shiro and Aya had a better chance of succeeding at this than me.

"Ready, set, go!" Lunamon called.

I ran. The spikes hurtled for me. I ducked wildly, stepping to the side, nearly crashing into a pole. Another spike. I hit the floor, rolling a few inches, before getting up again and running once more.

Sidestepping a few poles, I saw a barrage of spikes heading for me. There was no way I could run through them, so I fell down again and inched forward until they had passed. I got up and ran.

More spikes.

Floor. Crawl. Stand.

Spikes.

Floor. Crawl. Stand.

Avoid the pole.

Spikes.

Floor. Crawl. Stand.

_Ow_.

I banged my head on a pole that I hadn't seen, hanging above me.

SPIKES!

I fell backwards to the floor, three spikes skimming across my body. They weren't sharp, just dull and blunt. And heavy. And they hurt. I crawled, then stood, running a few feet until the spikes came once more. I repeated the procedure until I reached the other side.

Slowly, I made my way for Regiment 92. Lunamon greeted me first. "Five minutes," she said softly. My stomach dropped. "Don't feel too bad, Masaaki. You'll get better."

"Yeah," snickered Tailmon X, "in a century, maybe."

"Whatever," I said, and waited until they were through laughing and making fun of me. I wouldn't let it bother me, I wouldn't let it bother me. Everyone had their own strengths and weaknesses.

And I had a feeling I knew what Regiment 92's weakness was.

Everyone else had started out with their own regiment's faults. Regiment 24 wasn't strong or confident; Dorumon and Aya sent them off for attacks at a distance. Regiment 43 wasn't friendly; Shiro and Ryuudamon were making them talk.

Regiment 92 were speedy and had the stealth of a ninja.

Which probably made up for lack of strength.

I shared a look with Lunamon. She understood and nodded.

"Alright," I called, "you've had your laughs. You are all clearly gifted in this section, and have no need for improvement. So, as it is, we'll leave off from here for now. Are you ready for the next section?"

"The question is," Soulmon snickered, "are _you_ ready?" The regiment burst out laughing. I waited until the laughter had died down. It took a while.

"_I'm_ ready," I said. "Let's go for the strength section, shall we?"

I was right.

That wiped the smiles from their faces.

* * *

In the strength section, we met up with Regiment 24.

Aya nodded at us. "Hi."

"How's it going?" Lunamon asked.

"Eh," Aya said in reply. "Could be better. Look for yourself." She indicated Dorumon, who was busy shouting orders. Regiment 24 was currently attacking a wall of brick. So far, they had only managed to make a small crack.

"I'd better go," Aya said, "I only took a break because my throat was getting sore." She shook her head. "I swear, Dorumon's actually having _fun _from yelling." She headed off, one hand rubbing her neck absentmindedly.

My regiment looked at me expectantly, like they knew I would fail already. "Shall we do the same thing?" Tailmon X asked innocently.

"I don't see why not," I said, already seeing what they were getting at. "And you want me and Lunamon to go first, don't you?"

"You took the words straight out of my mouth," Leormon said sweetly.

"Okay then." Lunamon and I headed for a brick wall. I glanced back and saw our regiment watching us. I turned back to Lunamon. "Ready for this?" She nodded. As for me, I had no idea how I could help.

"Here we go," Lunamon said, and she soared for the brick wall. "Luna Claw!" Her claws scored against the brick wall, leaving three long, thin gashes against the brick. Lunamon flew back a few feet, her face in deep concentration. "Tear Shot!" A water ball formed at the end of her antenna and made its graceful way to the wall.

There was an explosion on impact.

Everyone near the wall ducked, and when the smoke had cleared away, there was a sizable indention in the wall. "Wow," I said. "Nice one."

"Thank you."

"Hey, wait!" Leormon snarled. "Lunamon is doing all the work. What about you, human?"

"Yeah!" echoed Soulmon. "C'mon, make the wall crumble!"

"If it'll shut you up," I said under my breath, as the rest of Regiment 92 joined in. But how could I help? Don't get me wrong—I wanted to. It wasn't fair for Lunamon to pull the weight around, especially since we were partners. But it was pretty obvious that if I punched the brick wall, it would result in my hand breaking.

How could I help?

I squeezed my eyes shut. _C'mon, c'mon_, I thought urgently. _Have to help Lunamon. Have to find a way. Otherwise, when we go out into the Digital World, out _there_, she'll be the one fighting, and I'll be a sitting duck._

_THINK!_

And suddenly, I felt a warm flash coming from my body. I opened my eyes, looked down. There seemed to be a blue-ish shimmer around me. What was going on?

Subconsciously, my hand opened. Then, like a vortex, the shimmer sucked itself into the palm of my hand, forming a bright blue sphere. It stayed there, swirling and swirling. By this time, Lunamon had come over to investigate, and Regiment 92 had shut their mouths.

Slowly, unsurely, I raised my hand, and pressed it in the screen of my digivice. "Power Transfer," I said clearly, scaring myself. "Lunamon, Energize!"

A strand of blue light shot out from the surface of the digivice. Just before it struck Lunamon, the strand expanded, enveloping Lunamon's body in a case of transparent light. She held up her hands in wonder. "What is this?"

"Try attacking," I suggested, suddenly feeling a little winded.

Lunamon faced the wall again, concentrating against. "Tear Shot!" Once more, the water ball appeared, and once more, Lunamon shot it off to hit the wall.

This time, there was a bigger explosion.

I grabbed Lunamon, and we hit the floor just as the cloudy smoke rushed over. When it had died away, we raised our heads.

The wall was no more.

Instead, it was a pile of dirt and rubble.

Slowly, Lunamon and I turned around to face the regiment. "Well," Lunamon said, "is that okay with you?"

Open-mouthed, they nodded.

"Then get to work," I ordered, still unable to comprehend what had just happened.

They set off immediately, continuously striking the wall until it was dinnertime, occasionally sparing Lunamon and me a calculating glance.

* * *

"_What?_"

Aya's chopsticks halted, a few inches from her mouth. Shiro's glass was tilted in midair, the water dribbling out of it. He smacked it down. "You gave Lunamon power?" he asked incredulously.

"You're kidding, right?" Dorumon said.

"How is that even possible?" wondered Aya.

"Who knows?" Ryuudamon said, in his low and quiet voice.

I took out my digivice. "I think it's this thing," I said. "Whatever it is. So far, as far as we know, it can transport us to the Digital World, and give our Digimon partners power—our own power. Who knows what else it can do?"

"Wait," Shiro interrupted. "_Our_ own power?"

I nodded. "Back then, when Lunamon was hit by that light thing, I suddenly felt tired. Not too much though." I turned the digivice in my hands. "I think I somehow gave my energy to Lunamon, through _this_ thing."

"Weird," Aya mumbled, setting her chopsticks down.

We were silent for a few moments, thinking our own thoughts, among the rowdy lunch room. Our regiments were eating among themselves, occasionally shooting us a look. Regiment 24 looked nervous, Regiment 43 looked mad, and Regiment 92 looked curious.

"You know how we wanted to call this thing something else?" I asked, out of the blue, waving the digivice around.

Aya and Shiro were confused; the Digimon glanced up, then returned to their food. "Yeah."

"I think we should call it the D-Soul," I said. "Because the power, or energy, that I gave to Lunamon came from my…soul, I guess."

Aya seemed to be thinking it over. "Interesting."

"I'm all for it," Shiro said, picking up his glass once more.

"Aya?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Sounds cool enough," Dorumon interjected. "Hey, Ryuudamon, how did the talking go with Regiment 43?"

Ryuudamon snickered. "You should have seen their faces."

"It was like they were in pain," added Shiro.

"They probably were," Aya mused.

"Regiment 24 was, in any case," Dorumon interrupted, and he began rambling.

We went on that like for a couple of minutes, until a blue dragon burst into the room, with an orange mane, and a sword sticking out of its spine. All talking stopped. Soulmon, who, for some reason, appeared right behind me, a bowl of soup in his hands, muttered, "That's Wingdramon."

I wasn't paying any attention to him. Instead, I was eyeing the soup. "You were going to pour that on me, weren't you?"

"Regiments 24, 37, 43, 57, and 92," Wingdramon boomed. "You are needed. A Zenith Stone has been found. A _real_ one this time."


	6. Day: Missions

**Disclaimer: Neither The Digital Gate or I own digimon.**

* * *

_**Alias:**  
Day: Missions_

"At least I can beat you in Go!"

I chucked the first thing I I found at him: his shoe.

When I went back into my room, I was trying to forget about how I was frustrated I was. Not because of my brother(it happened too often for it to bother me), but because I had been reminded of Alias when it came up in our conversation. It wasn't pleasant to be reminded that we'd failed.

But I suppose I couldn't blame Masaaki. He didn't know what had happened with my Alias game, or how it had somehow pulled me in. I pictured what his face would look like if I told him and grinned.

I noticed the pre-evolved version of Coronamon, Sunmon, was staring at some pictures I'd hung up on the walls over the years.

I walked to the spot next to him, and looked at some of the pictures myself. There was a long silence.

"So, what're you looking at?"

I knew this was a stupid question. Sunmon gave me a look too, and grinned. "What are they?"

I blinked. "Pictures?" I paused, opening my mouth, pausing again, and gave him a confused look. "You don't know what a picture is?"

The little ball of fire bobbed twice; he was nodding his head. "I've never seen anything like these though. I mean, we're able to draw in the Digital World, but never something this realistic. Who's the artist who created this?"

I explained how I took them with my camera and pointed out the pictures of my old friends, my parents and some pictures of various objects.

He looked really curious and I was amazed that in all the technology in the Digital World, Sunmon had never heard of a camera. I decided I'd have to show him sometime. We'd make it a little outing one day, just to ourselves. I grinned at the thought.

We paused after my explaination and just stared at the wall a bit before Sunmon brightened for a second. "Oh! I almost forgot!" he flew over to my computer and bobbed above my watch-digivice. "Swanmon wants you back in the Digital World."

"Swanmon?" I sat down on my bed, setting my computer on my lap.

Sunmon bobbed up and down again. "Yeah, she appeared on the screen looking for you. You weren't here."

I nodded. A trip to the Digital World wouldn't be so bad, even if it had been only a day since the last time I'd been there. Picking up my device, Sunmon answered my unasked question.

"Swanmon says that the watch will bring you back, and you'll know how to use it to get to the Digital World."

My mouth opened, but I closed it again. The television shows had been a bit strange too.

* * *

Turns out Swanmon was right. After I'd put my watch back on, I'd known exactly what to do. It scared me how the words just seemed to come out of my mouth and how I knew what to do with my hands. I half-hoped Masaaki wouldn't hear me in the other room, but the other half of me was in amazement.

We landed in the conference room, and fell flat on the stone. My knees hurt, and I was a little winded. I hoped this wouldn't happen every time we teleported, otherwise I might just as well quit and stay at home on Earth.

"Don't worry, we did that too."

Familiar voices. I slowly got up, taking a deep breath to stop my shock.

"But didn't we land in the middle of some debate?"

"Yeah, that was funny. Their faces were hilarious when we popped out of nowhere. They were all trying to decide if we were a threat until Musyamon said hi to us."

"And even then their eyes were still popping out. Apparently Musyamon isn't that friendly during debates."

Sikke and Monmon laughed. Seemed as though they'd become real good friends in the day that we'd all gone back home.

Katsuo was eyeing them with awe.

"In the middle of a debate?" he asked bewildered.

Sikke nodded, still grinning. "Yep. Where'd you land?"

Katsuo shrugged. "Well, actually, we landed outside the door and on our feet."

I got to my feet, while I watched Katsuo and Bearmon exchange amused glances while Sikke didn't look amused.

"Yeah, yeah, so you're perfect, you little weasel. I'd like to see you land in a debate room and stay calm."

"I thought you said you were laughing?" Bearmon asked.

They would've have continued. Coronamon, who surprised me with having changed back to his child form, leaped up on the table and stood in between the two pairs.

"Come on guys, quit it. Swanmon's coming."

Sikke and Katsuo glanced at each other, glared once more, then nodded as if the arguement was over for now.

Sikke leaned back in his chair and looked over at me. "So Minori, how are you?"

"Between me having a few bruises on my knees and resisting the urge to yell at you two, I'm fine." That and the thought of a certain failed mission was faintly crossing my mind again. I didn't dare say it aloud though. "But, I'm a nice person, so all I'm going to say is we're here for a reason. Swanmon's coming, and I'm annoyed as it is. So just shut up, and let's get this over with."

He raised an eyebrow, but stayed silent and nodded.

In the silence that followed, I began to wonder if the idea of failure in the mission had made me a bit too harsh. Or maybe it was because I hated the bickering. I couldn't be too sure, but I was beginning to believe it was a combination of both.

It was really awkward for the next few minutes. Sikke didn't surprise me by striking up a conversation with his partner on what they should do when they got back to Earth. I resisted the urge to snap at them about focusing, and looked over at Katsuo, who appeared to be fiddling with his fingers and patiently awaiting Swanmon's arrival.

Coronamon prodded me and I turned my head to look at him. "Minori, what do you think Swanmon wants us for?" he asked, obviously trying to create some conversation.

I wasn't interested, even if he was my partner. "I don't know," I said evenly, and then went back to my silence.

It wasn't hard for Coronamon to understand that I wanted quiet. He sat there silently the rest of the time, until Bearmon began talking to him quietly. I didn't bother to eavesdrop.

"Thank you for waiting, Chosen Ones."

Our heads turned in unison, and the atmosphere lightened just a little bit. "Heya Swanmon!" Sikke stood up with a smile, Monmon on his shoulder. I hadn't seen Monmon take his perch there until now. "How are you?"

"Good, under certain circumstances," she said with her gentle smile. She stood at the end of the table as Musyamon entered the room.

"Minori," he addressed me with a nod, and then glanced at Sikke with a humorous expression in his eyes. It faded quickly.

He turned to Swanmon. "Ma'am, I'm afraid we weren't able to find the stone in the forest Tailmon thought it was in." He looked down.

Swanmon nodded, but didn't seem the slightest upset. Rather, she looked thoughtful. "Yes, so it would seem. Call off the search then."

Musyamon seemed surprised. So was I for that matter, but when I thought it over, it seemed it was a reasonable decision. Why keep looking for something when you're pretty sure it isn't there?

"Yes Swanmon. Can do."

He headed out of the room. Swanmon listened until she heard his footsteps disappear.

"Swanmon?" Katsuo's voice wasn't as loud as the rest of ours, but it was loud enough for all of us to hear. "Why'd you send for us if the search was called off?"

"Because, some of my spies have heard of a new stone in a different area. Night is sending people to look for it. I want Day to get there first."

This caught me off guard. They'd already located another one already? This organization knew buisness.

Sikke nodded slowly. Monmon spoke. "So, you want us to go to this place and find the stone. Possibly bring it back?"

"I would think that you would be able to bring it back," Swanmon raised an eyebrow, but nodded. "You won't be alone though. I'm sending a regiment with you. Minori, your regiment is still with the search party, so I've chosen some digimon from Katsuo and Sikke's regiment who I think will help the mission along."

She paused to study our faces, then continued. "If the mission is successful, we should have the stone in a matter of hours."

* * *

When I mentioned that this organization meant business, I meant it. In a matter of an hour, Swanmon had gone over the possible situations we might encounter, shown us a map feature on our digivices, and gone through our team for the mission: a dinosaur digimon named Allomon, a Ninjamon, a bug digimon named Yanmamon, a Garurumon, and Musyamon would be joining us, just as soon as the message was sent out to stop the search.

She introduced us to Garurumon first, who helped train other digimon for battle.

"Nice to meet you general," Sikke grinned, but his grin was not returned.

Instead, Garurumon stared at him, stunned, and glanced at Swanmon, who only grinned, finding something funny that I had clearly missed.

"Garurumon will be going with you as well, in place of Wizarmon," Swanmon explained.

I blinked, eyes widening just a little bit.

"Wizarmon was going to come?" Coronamon asked. He looked up at Swanmon from where he was standing at my side.

"Yes, but he has something that's just as important to do, and to be honest, he's the only one I can really trust to do it," Swanmon said, leading us and Garurumon through a series of hallways. It seemed as though we weren't all going to fit into the elevator today.

"What's he doing?" Katsuo asked.

Swanmon hesitated, and I couldn't see her face from behind. "He's…Gathering some information for me. There are things that I'm not sure about, and I sent him to get some facts."

"Oh…Is he around then?" asked Katsuo, taking his digivice out of his pocket. "I wanted to ask him a few questions."

"No, I'm afraid not. I'll tell him you asked for him though, the next time I see him."

Not around Day? Where could Wizarmon have gone? I pondered that and found myself wondering what just what kind of information Swanmon was looking for.

We passed around a few more corners, went down a few more hallways until we reached a pair of doors. Garurumon pushed ahead of us to stand next to Swanmon as she pushed through the doors. He whispered something in her ear, something I didn't quite hear. She nodded, and turned to us.

"Garurumon will take you six from here. I have something to attend to. I hope the mission is successful. Please try your hardest, for Day."

"Yes Swanmon." We were in unison.

She nodded. "I'll meet you back here in Day then. Bring back that stone."

As she passed through the doors, Garurumon directed us to a corner of the room where half of the wall was gone and you could clearly see the outside. I was sort of surprised to see two familiar digimon, who grinned as we approached.

"Hey look, it's the screaming human! Never thought we'd see you again so soon."

"Man, I sure wouldn't want to have to have him ride on my back again. It may not look like I have ears, but man, did they hurt after that!"

The two Airdramon laughed and Sikke frowned and stepped closer to them, arms crossed. "I dare you to keep laughing."

They stopped, and looked at him funny, before looking over at me with smiles. "Hey Minori! How are ya?" one asked.

"I hear Musyamon's going on your mission with ya," the other one said.

I nodded, but Garurumon stepped forward with an eyebrow raised. "You two didn't hear?"

They froze and glanced nervously at each other, before the one looked back at Garurumon with narrowed eyes. "Hear what?" his tone was cautious.

"Yanmamon can't carry them all by himself. And we don't want them to walk. They take too long."

Their expressions looked frightened at first, and I held back my laughter. Monmon snickered and whispered something to Sikke, who's expression went from defensive to laughing. "Didn't think of that!" he exclaimed.

After a few seconds, the Airdramon hung their heads in defeat, and looked at each other. "Guess it has to be me or you brother."

"How 'bout we flip a coin?"

"Deal."

* * *

The rest of our team arrived shortly after. Allomon looked confused when Sikke was patting the one Airdramon who had lost and taken the penalty of having to fly with him on his back. He was promising over and over again that he wouldn't be as bad as last time, that it had only taken him by surprise. Allomon asked me what they were talking about, so I explained Sikke's first flight on Airdramon.

Allomon hollered, which took more explaining when Ninjamon and Yanmamon came in, with Musyamon following shortly behind. He looked out of breath. He glanced at me and smiled though, before talking to the rest of the team.

"Okay, now, we're all here?"

The positive response that followed allowed him to continue.

"So then…Sikke and Monmon have seemed to have already found themselves on the back of Airdramon, so that just leaves Minori and Coronamon, and Katsuo and Bearmon. Unless, of course, Allomon and Ninjamon don't want to run."

They shook their heads, which seemed to make Musyamon a lot happier. "Okay then. How are we going to arrange ourselves then?"

"I wouldn't mind riding on the Airdramon again," I said.

"I can ride on Yanmamon, if that's not too much trouble," Katsuo said, glancing at Bearmon.

Bearmon glanced at Yanmamon, analyzing him. "Um…I don't want to bother you with too much weight on you…"

"It wouldn't be too much for me, but I would fly slower. And there wouldn't be much room."

"Okay. I'll ride on one of the Airdramon then." Bearmon announced.

Musyamon nodded and stood up in the circle we had formed. "Okay then, let's head out."

I stood up, and was beginning to move to the one Airdramon, when the other prodded me with his tail. I blinked. "Yes?"

He hesitated. "Um…I don't want to have Sikke alone on my back…"

I groaned. It seemed as though without even trying, Sikke was slowly getting a reputation. "Okay. Coronamon, you want to ride with Bearmon?"

My partner scampered over to the other Airdramon while the rest of us climbed aboard. Sikke didn't seem to mind when I climbed up on the Airdramon and sat next to him near the skull. Monmon sat at his other side. He nodded and looked out at the sky through the very large hole in the wall. He looked nervous.

"You'll be fine," I muttered, unconsciously holding on tightly to Airdramon's skull.

We took off on Musyamon's command and we were flying high up in the sky. Allomon, Ninjamon and Musyamon had temporarily hopped onto the other Airdramon. Once we got far enough away from Day, they leapt off and ran.

To my surprise, Sikke remained quite quiet the whole time. Except for when we first took off, when he yelped a little bit and then held back his words of complaint. I could've sworn he was biting his tongue.

The flight was calm. We didn't go over the desert this time, so it wasn't necessary for me to take my yellow jacket off. I did however start to roll my jeans up until they were up to my knees. The breeze felt good and I smiled.

It didn't take long to get where we were going. We stopped at the edge of a forest before continuing forward. Like the last time, Musyamon told the Airdramon to stay hidden as we continued on foot. It wasn't a long walk, but I could feel the nerves kicking in.

I was on the alert. All of Swanmon's possible scenarios flowed into my head, and I was going to panic.

A twig snapped and I jumped. Coronamon raised an eyebrow at me. "Are you okay Minori?"

I nodded, and gave him a smile. It was forced. "Yeah."

Musyamon haulted a few minutes later, and my eyes took in my surroundings. We were at some kind of rock formation with so many holes in it. It was a wonder it was still standing.

"Okay…This is when we get cautious," Musyamon murmured, taking a small pack off his back.

Funny. I hadn't noticed it there before.

He pulled out what looked like a bunch of white cloth. It was hard to tell exactly what they were. I blamed the lighting, because it was slowly getting darker out.

"What are those?" I heard Bearmon ask.

"Cloaks. For the three Chosen Ones," Musyamon took a white cloak off the pile and handed one to each of us. Sikke put his on and so did Katsuo, but I just stared at mine, a bit confused.

"Um…Musyamon, why-"

"Swanmon's orders. You see, you three are a secret. Your identities will become crucial, and we don't want Night knowing who you are. Your face should be hidden at all costs," Musyamon looked dead serious about this. I put mine on quickly.

"Pull your hoods up. And keep them up until I say so." Another order.

We all obeyed.

Musyamon nodded, approvingly, and then turned to the rest. "We're going to need to split up into groups. We need some to keep a watch out here. Ninjamon and Allmon, I nominate you. Good?"

They nodded.

"The rest will go in the caves. Chosen Ones with their partners, and Garurumon and I will search sepperately. That way we have four groups. Everyone okay with that?"

Everyone else nodded, but I saw something wrong with this. "Musyamon, what if someone gets attacked? What do we do?"

"Attack back."

* * *

**Romainu:** Okay, so sorry for the long wait. I got caught up with a bunch of other things that are more important, but I've gotten most of those things out of the way. Now, as far as reviews go, I like it when people comment and give feedback, or just leave a message saying "Hey!". It gets me motivated. So, please review. The next chapter will come soon!


	7. Night: The Fight for the Stone

**_Disclaimer: Neither The Digital Gate or I own digimon. However, our ideas are our own._****_

* * *

_**

**Alias:  
**_Night: The Fight for the Stone_

Leathery wings walloped the air on either side of me. All around in the ink-black sky, stars glittered, speckled about a bright moon. Down below….Well, I didn't really know what was below us. No harm in looking, right? I leaned to my right—

And nearly fell off.

Well, actually, I _did_ fall off.

"_Masaaki!_"

For one moment, I was freefalling, my cloak billowing around me, my fingers scrabbling at the cold night air. The next, Coredramon did a weird little dip, and I flopped back onto his back, a little winded but otherwise fine.

"You _idiot_," Aya, who had seen me fall, said. "Are you trying to get killed?" There was relief in her voice, as well on Lunamon's face.

"Nope," I said breezily. "Just wanted to see what it would be like if I was a bird." Under my breath, refusing to let Aya know just exactly _how_ panicked I had been, I added, "Thanks, Coredramon."

The green subspecies of Coredramon merely grunted. "See that it does not happen again," he warned in his throaty voice. "I may not be able to save you twice."

I gulped. "Right."

Wing beats. Lunamon and I turned to see Shiro, Ryuudamon, and a reluctant Airdramon from their regiment flying beside us. Shiro pulled off his hood, raising an eyebrow. "Wanted to skydive, did you?"

"He fell," Lunamon chipped in before I could speak, "by accident. I think he was trying to look down below—"

"Thank you, Lunamon," I interrupted, but Shiro and Ryuudamon were already roaring with laughter. Airdramon pulled back, still sullen, but more amused, and we were left alone, just behind Wingdramon.

"So," I said, "how much longer until we reach the stone?"

"I do not know," Coredramon rumbled. "Only Wingdramon knows where it is."

"Isn't that a bit dangerous?" I wondered. "Like, if he was ambushed or something, and was defeated. Then Day would get to the stone, and where would you be? Without a second-in-command and a Zenith Stone."

Coredramon was silent for a moment. "That would be true," he said, and then his voice hardened as he went on. "But Wingdramon, if attacked, _would_ prevail. Remember that."

Apparently I'd offended him. So I muttered to Lunamon, "I think they put too much trust in the leaders."

"Maybe so," Lunamon allowed. "But, Masaaki, you have to understand—" She never got to finish.

Coredramon suddenly dropped.

I grabbed Lunamon and flung myself across Coredramon's body, the wind rushing past me, tears streaming about of my eyes, my cloak making me feel like a huge kite—and then, with a bump, Coredramon landed, and we fell off.

"Well," I said as an afterthought, "that was kind of fun."

A huge looming figure appeared above my head. I could only see his star-surrounded outline. "Good for you," boomed the voice of Wingdramon. "Now get up. _This_ is where we get serious."

A little sheepishly, I scrambled to my feet. Lunamon hovered in the air beside me. "So," I said, eager to avoid the subject of my lying on the ground, "what's next?"

Wingdramon scowled at me for a few seconds, then scouted the surroundings. He leaned in close, beckoning for us to follow. We did so. "Alright," he said, "I want each pair of you to split up, take a different entrance, and try to find the Zenith Stone. We've got no more trackers to spare, you'll just have to rely on eyesight."

"Excuse me," Aya broke in, "but what does the Zenith Stone look like?"

Wingdramon frowned. "I was unable to hear," he admitted. "Before our scout relay any more information, including their location, Day regiments arrived and the transmission was interrupted. But it cannot be hard to distinguish—you will know upon looking at it."

"That's helpful," Dorumon said, and he pointedly turned and gawked at a round stone nearby. "Ooh! Look—it's the Zenith Stone!" He seized it. "We win!"

Wingdramon glowered fiercely at him. "This is not," he spat, "the time for games. We will leave you out here if you wish."

Dorumon gulped and dropped the rock on Aya's foot. She let out a low curse. "No, sorry," Dorumon squeaked. "Won't happen again."

Wingdramon's burning gaze pierced him for a few seconds longer. "Alright," he said, turning away—Dorumon sighed in relief—"break up!"

Lunamon and I were joined by our regiment and we turned and looked at the expanse of rock in front of us. Holes were scattered across its face, stretched high and low. It was like a block of stone cheese.

"Okay then," I said. "Let's go. Who wants to pick the cave?"

They all stared at me like I was crazy.

Unruffled, I said, "If no one wants to…"

"_Why_?" Leormon asked.

"Why what?"

"Why do you want us to choose?" Tailmon X said sharply.

"I don't know." I scratched my head absentmindedly. "I suppose it won't make a difference, whichever one we choose. We'll probably end up lost anyhow…"

"So," Lunamon chirped. "Who wants to pick?"

Regiment 92 all looked at each other. Then, as one, they turned to us and began jumping up and down—well, Soulmon bobbed instead of jumped. In the case of Snimon and Garurumon, the ending result was somewhat like an earthquake.

"Ooh! Me! ME!"

"Pick me!"

"No way, I want to!"

"_So do I_."

"So?"

"Ow!"

Lunamon put two fingers in her mouth and let out a sharp whistle. All movement and fighting—mostly slaps—ceased. "How do you _do_ that?" I marveled.

Lunamon frowned. "I don't know," she admitted. "Who do you think should pick?"

I gulped. "Uh. You choose. The others might tear me apart."

"Okay then." Lunamon inspected all of them, one at a time. She took so long, I had to remind her that everyone else had gone in, and we'd better hurry up. "Right. Well, Soulmon, you pick."

"YES!" Soulmon immediately zoomed into a hole that wasn't all-too-close to the ground. When we didn't follow, he popped his head back out. "Well come on!" he said impatiently.

We scurried after him. The hole was big enough for Snimon to enter if he stooped, and wide enough for Garurumon. The only problem was how far it was from the ground. Tailmon X and managed to scurry her way up, shortly followed by Leormon and Snimon, flying and landing awkwardly.

That left the rest of us—me, Garurumon, and Lunamon. I was sure Lunamon could get up there, yet she stubbornly stayed at my side. After a few moments of contemplation, Garurumon turned to us.

"If you get on my back," he said, "I think I can jump us up."

I was startled. "No, that's okay—I think I might be able to climb."

"It'll be faster my way," Garurumon insisted. "Like you said, Wingdramon will be angry."

"Good point." I swung myself up, and Lunamon joined me. Garurumon backed up a couple of feet, ran, jumped up to the whole, his hind feet scoring gashes in the rock as he attempted to gain his footing.

With a surge, he clattered on to the rock floor, and Lunamon and I slid down, waiting for him to catch his breath. When his breathing resumed its normal pace, I said, "Let's go find ourselves a stone."

* * *

It wasn't as easy as I'd hoped.

True to what I'd said before, we _did_ get lost, multiple times actually, and ended up at dead ends at least three times, and had to backtrack along a small, suffocating tunnel, a spindly ledge over an over drop, and an unstable ground with spikes.

But other than that, it went great.

We really got on each other's nerves, fighting and squabbling over the dumbest things. Like how Tailmon X's fur was too bright, someone might see it from far away, or how Snimon should stop rubbing his arm-sickles together—something he did when he was nervous—or how Soulmon should stop pulling pranks, after all, _we_ weren't the enemy…

Being in each other's company was really starting to irritate all of us, and one of us would have eventually cracked, but we started hearing sounds of battle, and immediately quieted down.

"I think I hear something," Leormon whispered.

Soulmon sneered. "Oh, _do_ you?" he asked mockingly.

Leormon snarled. "Listen—"

I turned to Tailmon X, the only one who didn't seem to be as moody as the rest. "Are you always like this? Earlier I got the feeling you worked and got along together great as a team."

Tailmon X shrugged, looking slightly snappish. "I suppose," she said. "The thing is, we're like thieves; we're used to running around in open space, with the feeling of exhilaration, you know? Instead, we're stuck here, snooping around in tight spaces, with no one but each other for company."

"So when you're alone, you fight?" Lunamon wondered.

"Yes and no," Tailmon X answered. "We're a family, more or less, a bunch of brothers and sisters. And brothers and sisters…well, they like to fight for no apparent reason."

"They don't _like_ to," I retorted, thinking of Minori. "It's just a…habit."

Tailmon X nodded. "Exactly." She sighed. "Better break them apart, Masaaki, Lunamon. If I do, I'll end up hurting them." She nodded towards the sounds of battle, ignoring my amazement. "Hurry up, too. I think we're needed."

She left to lean against a wall, and I stared at Lunamon in astonishment. "She said my name."

Lunamon frowned. "What, you didn't know it?"

"No! No, it's not that…it's…" I hesitated. "I just didn't think she'd ever acknowledge me, is all."

"Well she did," Lunamon said, smiling slightly. "I think we should break the fight apart now, don't you?"

So we jumped into the tussle and, after a lot of tussling and scratching and kicking, wrenched the fighting Digimon apart. "Right," I panted. "Our goal here today is to find the Zenith Stone, not beat the living daylights out of our companions."

"And for the time being," Lunamon added sternly, "don't go and insult anyone else just because you feel like it."

"What if they're part of Day?" Soulmon's eyes glittered.

Lunamon considered it. "It might be okay then."

* * *

We ran down the sloping tunnel, the sounds of the fight growing louder and louder. Our feet thundered along the ground, the moss along the walls becoming thicker and thicker. And finally, up ahead, a slice of light.

"There!"

"Go!"

"Masaaki!" Lunamon shouted urgently. "Your hood!"

"Oh, right!" I yanked it on, and it instantly obscured the top part of my vision. If a rock was falling towards me, and I was staring straight ahead, there was no way I'd know. I instantly quashed the thought; _don't think about that now, don't THINK ABOUT IT._

We burst through the opening and looked on at the mass of fighting Digimon all around the edges of a huge cavern. Each and every Digimon seemed to be struggling to get to the center, and attempting to prevent any others from reaching it at the same time.

Our regiment tensed, waiting for the order. "Go!" shouted Lunamon, and they leaped into acti9on.

What _was_ at the center, anyways?

I took a look at the raised platform in the middle of the cavern.

And knew that it held the Zenith Stone.

Wingdramon had been right. I did know what it was. There wasn't anything like it. It was round, hovering in midair. A golden loop was strung around it, emblazoned with relics I couldn't read, even if I got close. And it was black, a good, shining kind of black. Smoke seemed to swirl beneath the hard surface, in an almost mesmerizing way.

And then, with a flash, I realized that there were four others in the room that I had to fear. I looked up, and locked gazes with a hooded figure in white. One other human flanked him—at least I think he was a human—and two Digimon. An orange monkey-lion-thing seemed to be the first human's partner.

And although I couldn't see his eyes, and he couldn't see mine, I knew from the smug smile on his face that he knew that I knew that we were both after the same thing, the Zenith Stone, and the fact that I thought there was no way Lunamon and I would beat them to it. So I panicked.

"Lunamon! We've got to get to the Zenith Stone before he does!"

I leaped off the cliff edge I'd been standing on into the fray, charging past wrestling Digimon, Lunamon right at my side. "Masaaki, that's a girl!"

"What?"

"That's a girl!"

Unable to see how that was important, but trying to distract myself from the fact that the other team might reach the center before us, I yelled, "How do you know?"

"She stands like Aya does, not like you and Shiro!"

A Digimon lurched for us, claws inches from Lunamon. I yanked out my D-Soul, as we had come to call it, feeling the rush I had felt earlier today. "Power Transfer! Lunamon, Energize!"

I slammed the energy ball into my D-Soul.

Lunamon spun out of the way of the Digimon, and as he turned back, shouted, "Tear Shot!"

The water smacked the Digimon in the chest, and he was sent flying away, smacking others as he howled.

"We're almost there," I panted. "Just a little further…" The center was only a few feet away now. If I ran and jumped, maybe I'd be able to reach the stone…. "Lunamon, how are we supposed to get the stone—"

Something white smacked into me at the same time a furry bear leaped at Lunamon. We both recoiled; I swore under my breath, all the curse words I knew stringing into one long stream.

A white Day warrior stood in front of me, his hood up. At his side was a bear with a purple cap. "You won't get past us," he warned. "Day will get the Zenith Stone."

"How can you be sure?" I spat.

"Look," the boy said calmly, and I turned to see his companion, the one Lunamon said was a girl, reaching for the Zenith Stone. The orange monkey-lion was beside himself with glee.

And then, without warning, Aya appeared, landing like an explosion, Dorumon blasting his way through the melee; projectiles spurted from Dorumon; the other girl and her partner only managed to get away in time.

Which reminded me—how were other humans here?!

I glanced over the boy in front of me. Pale skin under the hood, five fingers. Definitely human. And in his hand…a D-Soul, light grey in color. _What?_ How did _he_ have it? Did it mean that he, like us, was chosen by Alias?

Then why was he with Day?

"Are you human?"

There was a trace of a smirk on the boy's face; his partner, the bear, laughed outright. I couldn't see the boy's eyes, which disconcerted me a little. "Naturally."

I was getting riled; this kid was younger than me, by the sounds of it. "Don't get cocky." A trace of the aura from earlier flashed briefly in my palm.

The smirk disappeared. "Who's getting cocky?" There was a trace of a threat in his voice now. "Tell you what—let's let our friends settle this, shall we? I'm not up for a fight at this moment."

"Fine," I growled, trying hard to calm myself down. "But next time we meet, _brat_, you won't be so lucky."

The bear sneered. "Would you say the same thing if _we_ got the Zenith Stone?"

"You won't," Lunamon promised; but nevertheless my grip tightened on my D-Soul, and the boy noticed, and he and his partner gasped.

"You've got one?" For once, the boy sounded staggered. "How…?"

"That's for me to know," I snapped, "and you to never find out."

A sudden crack made us whip around; up until then, Dorumon and the monkey-lion had been circling around and around each other, staying within reach of the Zenith Stone. Now they sprang at each other, and the entire cave went silent, every eye trained on them.

"CoroKnuckle!" the monkey-lion shouted.

"Metal Shoot!" Dorumon yelled.

Flaming fist met a small shockwave; the monkey-lion flipped back, landing neatly on his feet. "Corona Flame!" Fire spewed from his forehead; Dorumon took a step back in alarm, and the fire was on him in seconds.

A cheer went up from Day; I could hear audible groans from Night.

"Dorumon!" Aya was by his side in an instant; I started forward, but Bearmon zipped in front of me.

"They'll settle it themselves, remember?"

"You…"

"Calm down!" Lunamon interrupted. "Look, Dorumon's back on his feet."

And so he was. But my eyes were fixed on his partner. Aya appeared to be concentrating hard; suddenly, a flash of energy, and suddenly Aya was enveloped in a dark purple aura that formed into a sphere in the palm of her hand. I knew from the sudden intake of breath from the kid that he had never seen anything like it before, and smirked slightly.

"Power Transfer!" Aya cried, smashing the sphere into the screen of her D-Soul. "_Dorumon, Energize!_"

A dark purple strand exploded from the screen, expanding and enveloping Dorumon. He roared. "Metal Cannon!"

Metallic projectiles burst forth; the girl and the monkey-lion were too stunned to counterattack, and only managed to throw themselves on the floor in the nick of time. Dorumon's Metal Cannon left a sizeable hole in the floor.

A few seconds of silence, and suddenly the cavern was full of whispers, and in some places, fighting was beginning once again.

"Just like us, huh?" Lunamon said.

I grinned, aware of the disbelief radiating from the kid and the bear. "Yup."

The girl was back on her feet, her white cloak torn in places; she was saying something, but I couldn't hear; the kid and the bear were talking too loudly. "Hey," I said, spinning around, "shut up."

But the bear only gaped over my shoulder, and I turned back around. The dark purple aura was back; it not only surrounded Aya and Dorumon, but the Zenith Stone as well. All noise died away as the Zenith Stone rose a few feet up and glided to Aya's outstretched hand.

The instant it made contact with her fingers, there was a brilliant flash, I briefly caught sight of a hand-and-a-half sword, and then it vanished. Aya stood there looking dumbstruck; Dorumon nudged her, whispered something, and together they looked at her D-Soul.

As Day looked on, caught off guard, a roar was swelling from the Night ranks—after all, we had won the Zenith Stone.

* * *

**Romainu:** ...

So, Thanksgiving is next week. And I've got Thursday and Friday off of school. (I think The Digital Gate does too...I forget.) So, I'm going to try and write the next chapter during that time, or earlier if I'm motivated enough. (Or bored during my nocturnal hours of the )

I'm going to miss my mom's pumpkin pies during Thanksgiving though. I always looked forward to them, because she doesn't normally bake them, but she's on the other side of the world right now. Darn work related traveling.

Review please!

(And check out The Digital Gate's fanfics if you like this one. =D)


	8. Day: Ideas

**Disclaimer**: Neither I nor The Digital Gate own Digimon. However, our ideas are our own.

* * *

**Alias**  
_Ideas_

When reality hits you full force, it hurts. At least, it does for me. Not only did 'Night Girl' beat me in a fight(which I'm sure I'll have a few nice bruises from), but the stone was taken by Night. And my stomach didn't feel all too good to be honest.

Maybe it was too full of shame to feel good.

Night cheered and cheered while Day came together slowly. I noticed Katsuo still starring with shock at Night Girl, looking at the devices that matched our own in her hand. Her friend had gone to her, looking at her device as well. Ha. I hoped they'd never be able to get the stone out.

An idea came to mind, and I spoke to Coronamon quickly and quietly. He nodded and took off.

"_Try and snatch the device. Take Bearmon too. Hide in the shadows. We'll be outside."_

I was going to bring that stone home, even if it was in a container that technically was not mine.

"Day, let's move!" I shouted, calling attention not only from Day, but Night looked at me as well.

Come on Coronamon, Bearmon. Snatch it, I thought as I climbed up on Garurumon. Day followed quietly behind me, sneering at Night regiments as we passed them. They looked confused. They'd understand why we weren't fighting back soon enough.

I noticed the Night humans were looking over at me, one of them scratching his head. I grinned and spat at them, feeling really proud of myself.

Take that! You'll get what's coming to you soon enough.

Allomon came up alongside Garurumon, Katsuo following shortly behind. Both of them wore the same defeated look. Only Katsuo looked at me curiously, as if trying to ask me where I'd sent Bearmon. But his eyes gave me a worried look. That was my only clue that he might have understood my plan.

Either that, or he had gotten so close to Bearmon, he fretted when he wasn't near. I thought about Coronamon. He was brave, fiery and was strong in battle. He'd show me he could handle this assignment. He wouldn't be beaten by a furry dinosaur, crack his head on a rock, burst into data and never return for my eyes to see him again. Never.

I bit my lip. Okay, so maybe I was worried. But I had to push past that and think positively. I'd go after him if I sensed trouble. I'd get there in time… And that burst of light that came out of that girl's digivice would somehow come from mine, giving Coronamon power to restore him and fight back.

As I began to wonder what powers Night had found in their digivices, I was half listening to Garurumon, who'd begun to ask questions. I nodded my head every once in a while, until he caught on that I wasn't listening and became quiet.

"Speed up," I murmured, and the blue and white beast obeyed.

We reached the outside of the caves, at which time I leapt off of Garurumon and took a head count as we left for the bushes to the waiting Airdramon. Two ninjas, a dinosaur, a bug and a wolf, plus two humans(including myself).

I was turning around, to call to the Airdramon, when I froze.

Wait. Two humans. Where was the third?

I turned back to look at the tunnels. Was he at the battle? Monmon wasn't here either…

Make that one human and a monkey missing.

"What's wrong?" Katsuo came up behind me with Ninjamon behind him.

"See somethin' funny?" Ninjamon asked, drawing out his sword.

I shook my head. "Actually, I don't _see_ anything," I growled. Way to go Sikke. You made this mission even more complicated. "Have you seen Sikke?"

They both got the gist of my statement, looking around, eyes widening.

"Wah! Why that little bugger. I oughta-" Ninjamon started to walk towards the tunnels, but I pulled him back into the bushes.

"No!" I stated firmly. He growled and I wished dearly for Coronamon and Bearmon to come out soon. Maybe then Sikke wouldn't have time to mess with my plans. "If you go in, you'll interfere with the plan."

"The plan?" both of them asked. Katsuo was eyeing me funny.

"Where's Bearmon _exactly_?" Katsuo asked calmly.

I explained, and that made Katsuo furious. "What?! You did what?!" He started walking out of the bushes.

"Idiot!" I grabbed his wrist and pulled him back. "They'll come back. If anything, I trust them both to get out of there if something happens."

"Right. And if they were to get hurt? You'd sacrifice Coronamon to complete this mission? You're the idiot!" he yelled in a raised whisper.

"Hush! I don't want to be heard by Night!"

"They're in a cave. They couldn't possibly-"

I was going to retort that caves echo, when we heard loud footsteps coming from the caves. I crouched, ready to spring into a run. Glancing at Katsuo, I saw he was ready to do the same thing. Ninjamon had his sword out still. He really didn't need to bring it out.

The footsteps grew closer.

Get ready, I thought. 3, 2, 1-…What?!

The figure that exited first was a dark blonde boy, with a green monkey by his side. As he got closer, I saw his wild eyes.

"Sikke!" I hissed.

He spotted me, and came instantly, running as fast as he could, Monmon following closely behind.

I was ready for him to explain, ready for him to say he was sorry for keeping us waiting. Instead, he ran right past me, leaving me feel just that much angrier. I snapped around to glare at him, opening my mouth to say something, when someone called my name.

"Minori! Run!"

Looking back, I saw Coronamon and Bearmon, panting. I would've waited for them, but the digimon behind them made me react differently.

"To the Airdramon!" I yelled. I ran fast, pulling Katsuo with me, who was keen on the idea of staying to wait for Bearmon.

I pushed him to the Airdramon, getting up myself before helping him up. I saw Sikke on the other on with Monmon and Allomon beside him. Yanmamon was already taking for the skies, while Ninjamon was jumping for Airdramon's back.

"GO!" I yelled, and the Airdramon took off.

I looked back where Coronamon and Bearmon, who were just getting to us. Coronamon jumped, clinging to Airdramon's tail, while Bearmon did the same thing.

But missed.

"No!" Katsuo yelled, reaching out for his friend. "Bearmon!"

He turned to look at me, and then the Airdramon. "We've got to fly lower for a second. Bearmon's-"

"Getting a ride from Garurumon," I said, pointing out the faint figure off the bear being tossed onto Garurumon's back.

Katsuo looked over, breathing heavily, calming himself down. He gulped, and then became quiet. He glared at me, before looking back out at sky.

I didn't know what was wrong with him. I knew Bearmon would make it somehow, whether we'd have to come back and get him or not. Besides, the team in whole mattered. And that was what I was thinking about.

But, it made me feel better to know that I would've helped Katsuo get Bearmon back if we had lost him.

* * *

Coronamon and Bearmon hadn't gotten the stone. As soon as Coronamon had climbed up Airdramon's tail to come sit by me, he didn't even need to inform me. His empty hands and guilty face told me all I needed to know.

I shrugged it off, and nodded at him when he told me in words.

"It's okay. So Night won this one. We'll get them next time."

I couldn't tell him any other words. It was hard for them to form, only because I was disappointed too.

But I wasn't going to sulk. I was dead set on thinking positive, or at least planning ahead. There were other stones to locate. It'd be okay to start over if it meant finding a stone for Day. Finding a stone at all would be okay.

We'd infiltrate Night eventually and take back what was rightfully ours. But first, we needed to grow stronger. And by stronger, I mean both strong in numbers and strength.

We returned to Day with saddened spirits. We were silent the rest of the way home. Katsuo had gone to Bearmon the instant we'd landed in the base. Musyamon sent Garurumon and Allomon to their normal duties in Day, while Ninjamon was to follow Musyamon to Swanmon's office. He glanced at us, telling us to follow when we were ready.

If anything, Musyamon was insightful and respectful. Glad for my moment to calm my thoughts, I glanced over at Sikke, who still sat on top of Aidramon. Aidramon was giving him a hard time, but trying to do so lightly. He didn't look to good.

I walked over to the side of Airdramon, and looked at him carefully. His eyes weren't as wild anymore, but they still held the frightened look they had when I'd last seen them.

I was silent for a while, while Airdramon was casually trying to tell him to get the heck off of him.

"Um, Sikke?"

No response.

"Sikke? I think you can come off Airdramon now."

He glanced out in my direction, before actually looking down and meeting my questioning eyes.

"Oh." He slid off slowly and carefully, apparently taking his time. He glanced at me, and then looked around. "Well, we're back. Without a stone."

I mentally smacked myself. He'd read my thoughts. "Well, there's always next time. There's more than one Zenith stone. And, when the time comes, we'll infiltrate Night and demand the stone."

"And what if they get all the stones before we even get a chance to get one?"

I wanted to slap him. He wasn't smiling. It was scary. Even though I'd only known him for a certain amount of time, he was a smiley figure in my imagination. Not someone who fretted about things that had happened.

"That won't happen," I said firmly. "I won't let it happen."

He still wasn't smiling. Darn it, it was making me worry.

I patted his shoulder, and he became stiff. "You'll be fine." I gave him a weak smile before I walked away. I glanced at Katsuo, who was giving me a weird look. "Swanmon's waiting. You coming?"

He paused, and nodded, glancing at Bearmon as they both stood up and followed me. Other footsteps behind me told me Sikke was following too. And Monmon.

Good, I thought. That was how it was supposed to be. We were a team.

Swanmon was waiting for us in the conference room, and we entered silently. Musyamon stood beside her, while Ninjamon was at the door, sitting silently.

I looked down. I didn't want to meet her gaze. The shame built into me. I was remembering the words she'd told us before she left.

"_Bring back the stone."_

"_Please try your hardest, for Day."_

Had we done our best? If our best couldn't beat Night, was it really good enough?

"Night has won the first battle," Swanmon began, after much silence. "But that doesn't mean we've got to give up hope."

I could imagine her sweeping her gaze around at each of us, but I didn't look up.

"This is the beginning. The first stone to be found ever. I can see the second on the horizon, and the third. It won't be long now until we find one for ourselves. Until then, you must train." The tone of her voice wasn't gentle like the last time I'd heard her. She was turned into a complete leader now. "Garurumon is my top trainer, so-" "

"Swanmon, I have an idea."

I was surprised to hear Sikke speak. I glanced up and over to my left, to see him standing now.

"You've said you send spies to Night to retrieve information," Sikke said.

"Correct."

"And these spies were able to tell you the location of the Zenith stone."

"Yes."

"What if you were to send a human as a spy?"

Swanmon was looking at him fiercely now. "Why would I send you?"

"Night wouldn't be expecting it. And, I feel as though I didn't do anything in the past battle. I wasn't there to help when the battle was going on, and even though I'm disappointed in myself, I think I could use it to my advantage. Night never saw me. They never saw Monmon. If anything, I might be able to bring back a stone if it goes well."

Swanmon's gaze didn't lighten. "And let's say, perchance, that they discover you're from Day, and not only that, but you're one of our chosen?"

"I come back. I'll escape and return with Monmon and more information than you need about Night."

"And if you don't come back?"

Sikke ignored the question.

"Think of the information I could get. I heard of the humans in Night from the rest of the team that participated in the battle."

When? I thought. I never saw him talking to anybody.

"I might be able to learn a thing or two about them. Or learn something from them."

I looked over at Swanmon, who was thinking hard. In my mind, I thought it was a reasonable solution, but it was dangerous. Not only was Sikke not trained at all, but he hadn't seen the digimon from Night until we were flying above them. He hadn't seen the humans from Night. What if he was caught? He couldn't possibly expect to come back alive.

But we needed him back here in Day. He needed to train and help us search. He didn't need to go do research on the enemy while there were digimon already doing the task.

Swanmon was seeing the possibilities. What if we did learn about the humans from Night? What if we did acquire information on their base? What if, perchance, Sikke did come back? He'd be an ultimate weapon against them, knowing all their inside information. And Monmon might learn a thing or two on how to fight Night-style.

"Please Swanmon. I might be able to do something for Day."

Swanmon silenced him by raising her wing. She looked over at Musyamon and Ninjamon. "What do you think?"

Musyamon looked at Sikke with one glanced, before nodding his head. "There are things only humans can do and learn," he said. He sent a glare a Sikke's hopeful look. "However, if you stick your head in there without knowing the risks, you'd be better off dead."

Sikke nodded. "I know."

Musyamon stared at him for a while, before nodding. "I say give him a chance."

Ninjamon nodded. "If anything, he can teleport to the human world, and teleport over to us in Day with his digivice. But as a last resort."

Swanmon nodded. "That's what I was just thinking. Alright Sikke, you're going to make even more enemies by going over there. Are you prepared?"

Sikke nodded. "Yes."

No.

Idiot, I thought, clenching my fists where no one could see them. This was a stupid idea. Stupid, stupid, stupid. We didn't need to make more enemies by becoming their friends. We didn't need a chosen doing spy work.

Sikke didn't need to go anywhere.

But it had been decided.

"Okay Sikke, I'll give you spy-status for as long as you need. But then you must come back, you hear me?" Swanmon looked at him sternly.

He nodded. "Yes ma'am."

She studied Sikke for a few seconds, the swan's features becoming gentle again, only for a few seconds. She turned to Ninjamon, asking him a favor. While he nodded and left the room, she looked at Musyamon. "Escort Minori and Katsuo to the training grounds. Have them train until dinner."

"Yes Swanmon."

I looked over at Swanmon. "What about Sikke?" I asked quietly.

"I need to talk to him alone. Now, go train."

We were ushered out of the room by Musyamon, but I had time to glance back at Sikke with a raised eyebrow. What the heck was he thinking? He wasn't frowning. I couldn't understand the expression going across his face.

Heck. I didn't care that much. If he wanted to put himself in danger, he could jump off a cliff while the rest of us did what we needed to do: get better at what we needed to do.

* * *

Punching the lights out of a hanging target made me feel better. Although, I must admit, they were hard to knock down. Not to mention my knuckles were hurting. But honestly? I couldn't care less.

Coronamon was practicing with Bearmon, under Seadramon's orders.

Yeah, did I mention that sea dragons can somehow act like snakes on land? It was kind of weird to watch him slither like a snake everywhere. I could only imagine how he fought.

I whacked the target again with my fist, and it fell down. I grinned, panting hard. _Finally. _Wiping the sweat from my forehead, I looked around to see what else I could do.

Day wasn't very particular with their training, nor were they very tough about it. Stations were set up were you could practice certain things, and depending on the level of your training, within in the stations you could choose what you wanted to do.

Now, there were trainers and what-not. It wasn't a free-for-all, thankfully. Within the four or five stations, there were certain digimon that were in charge. In the agility training, Renamon was the trainer, Centaurmon was training Katsuo in the defense training, Seadramon and his team of Elecmons were in charge of the teamwork training, and I was with two Thunderballmon and a Mamemon in the strength training, who were ordered around by a Meramon a lot. He was the rightful trainer of the strength training, but from what I saw, the others did more work than he did.

"Your punches are all about the speed," a Thunderballmon commented, as we sat down for a drink of water. Or, well, at least I was drinking. "You should slow up and see how hard you can hit. For instance, try and knock me down with one big blow instead of multiple fast ones."

He stood up. I thought it over some more, took another drink, and stood up before he would ask me again.

Thunderballmon nodded at me and we walked onto the mat again. He stood in a ready position, looking at me, waiting for me to move. He held his hands up, one foot in front of the other. I figured he was going to try to make it hard.

I sniffed indignantly. This wouldn't be too hard. Just throw a hard punch, and-

_Whack._ That didn't work. Thunderballmon grinned, as he didn't even move back on the mat. "Try again," he said.

I looked around, anywhere but Thunderballmon. I wasn't the one who wanted to train. But, Swanmon had insisted, and I wasn't going to be any help if I just wandered around. Besides, it shouldn't be that hard to knock down a ball of steel with boxing gloves.

I whipped around and threw another punch, this time letting my whole body go into it.

Thunderballmon braced himself, but moved only an inch.

My teeth clenched and unclenched with my breathing. Damn it.

"Come on Minori, you need to get angry. You're not trying hard. You're still using your speedy punches. Come on, I know you want to knock my socks off," Thunderballmon grinned.

First of all, metal steel balls that talk don't wear socks. Second of all, I wasn't in the mood for humor, unless it was my sarcasm talking to me.

_Oh great, of _course_ you'll knock his socks off. You'll completely _obliterate _him! Come on Minori, through the punches at him! Just get this darned thing over with!_

If only it would be so simple. Punch after punch after punch, I could tell Thunderballmon was getting annoyed.

"Come on! Your heart's not into it. One big punch, that's all I'm asking for!"

"I'm trying!" I yelled desperately, exhausted, but still pumped and ready for the next blow.

We'd only moved inches, but we were getting close to the edge of the mat. That was when my split decision came.

I punched again, a bit harder. Yes, that's it. We'd moved a few paces back.

Thunderballmon looked a bit happier. "That's it! Again!"

_Whack._

"Good, good! Now swing your arm more. Add more force into it."

"Gladly," I grinned.

My arm swung back and came back full force, missing Thunderballmon's braced hands and hitting him full in the face. He stepped backwards a few paces, right on the edge of the mat. He winced, staying there for a few seconds, before smiling back up at me.

"Wow. That was great-"

_Whack._

He tumbled back a few steps, felt the edge of the mat, his eyes wide, before stumbling back and hitting the hard ground.

I heard silence as I walked over to Thunderballmon. I didn't bother to help him up. I bowed deeply.

"Thank you Thunderballmon for your training," I said evenly before leaving.

I caught some stares from the other digimon as I walked out of that place, but I just glared at them and kept walking forward.

I really needed to work on my niceness skills. I wonder if they have a training station for that?

* * *

To put it quite simply, everything went about Day as it would normally. We ate dinner in the grand hall, training went on as usual afterwards, and then digimon headed to bed as well.

During dinner, I had learned that though Thunderballmon was a Child level digimon, he was a pretty proud digimon. More than once I was told that Thunderballmon did not like me. But really, I didn't care. It wasn't something to worry about in the long run.

Sikke was with us at dinner, but he stayed far away from me. I figured he'd heard about my state of anger, but I couldn't be too sure. Katsuo questioned me the whole time though, demanding to know what the heck I was doing, but I shrugged him off.

"Go ask someone else. There seems to be too many rumors around here," under my breath, I added, "Who knew digimon could gossip so much."

I spent the rest of the night up in my room. Coronamon found me later, just sitting there, staring out my window. I could feel him giving me odd looks.

"Minori?" he came and sat down next to me.

"Where have you been?" I asked, glancing at him. I tried to keep the harsh tone out of my voice.

"You're acting strange."

I really hated it when people didn't answer my questions.

"No, really? Where have you been the past few hours?" I smirked.

Coronamon just stared at me, but he was calm. He wasn't freaking out, and he wasn't commenting.

We sat there in silence, just staring out the window. I began to feel tired when I realized Coronamon was rubbing my back. I glanced at him, and noticed he was smiling at me. I think I cracked then. I smiled back.

My partner was here, rubbing my back, being friendly.

"It's all going to work out somehow," he said. He stopped rubbing my back and began encircling my body with his arms.

We shared a hug, and I felt a little bit better. Just a tiny bit.

Sitting on our bed with our backs to the wall, we talked about stuff for a bit. I felt reassured by Coronamon's assessment of everything.

"Everything's going to be fine. Digimon are training, there are people out looking for stones, and Day is in a very good position right now."

"No we're not. This morning, we had a chance to do something right, and we screwed up. And not too long after that, one of our chosen decides to get up and leave-"

"He's not leaving," Coronamon defended, cutting me off.

I raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And what is he doing then?"

Coronamon glared at me, but stayed silent. "He's…just going on a little vacation."

I smirked. "A vacation?"

Coronamon nodded, deep in thought. "Yeah. He's not leaving permanently, he's going to go somewhere and come back after awhile. Humans do that too, right?"

I nodded. "Yeah, but we normally go somewhere fun on vacations. We go to relax and enjoy ourselves. And I swear, if Sikke enjoys himself over there and relaxes, I'll go over there myself, whack him a few times, and make sure he takes it seriously."

The little lion grinned. "A serious Sikke. Now there's a thought."

And we laughed until we fell over onto the bed and sprawled out. We just laid there for a bit.

I think we fell asleep, because the next thing I knew I was curled up in a ball in my blankets and Coronamon was on the floor in his corner, snoring.

Yawning, I got up slowly. I rubbed my eyes, shielding them from the light as I looked out my window. Even though my window was on the side of a cliff, there was ground below where Day made their gardens, if you'll believe me. Not the prettiest things I've seen, seeing as they had to get their water from outside the base and bring it in through the organization. It took forever, and sometimes the plants got too dry and looked like pencil shavings because they were so shriveled up.

I don't know why this was all important, but I suppose it just fascinated me that even when Day was in a war, they had time to create things, make things their own.

But, in reality, I think the Floramon who took care of the gardens were quite fun to watch. They were so clumsy.

While I waited for Coronamon to wake up, I took the chance to plan, get ready, and just overall wake up. Masaaki was always teasing me when I woke up, because my eyes were half glazed over and I didn't think straight at first. I often ran into things in the mornings. I was kind of glad there weren't as many objects in the room at the moment. And I must say, it's kind of hard to trip over a bed.

Once Coronamon woke up, we left for the great hall, where Katsuo was talking with Musyamon quietly. Getting our food from the buffet like stand, we made our way towards them, greeting them as we sat down.

"Morning Musyamon, morning Katsuo," I said with a smile.

Katsuo's eyes went wide, but then clouded over a bit and nodded. "Morning. How are you?"

"I'm actually pretty good." I wasn't lying. I was actually feeling a lot better than yesterday. I glanced at what he was eating and grimaced. "Uh..what exactly is that?"

Katsuo looked down at his meal, pushing it around the plate with his fork. "A combination of spices, fruits and meats," he grinned. "I believe there's some potatoes and strawberry type things in it."

I shook my head. "How the heck can you eat that? That's disgusting!"

He shrugged. "It's all data anyway. It's not going to fill us up anyways. It's purely for taste and comfort."

I blinked, staring at him. I didn't question his logic, but I doubted he was right.

Musyamon gave a slightly amused look, which reminded me of a certain smiley someone.

I looked around, glancing over the top of heads, looking for a human face and possibly a monkey. Frowning at my bad luck, I looked to Katsuo. "Where's Sikke?" I asked, wondering silently in my head if I should apologize to him.

But, seeing the look on Katsuo's face, it didn't look as if the answer was a good one. He glanced shyly over to Musyamon, who looked away. "I ain't telling her."

I wondered what that was about. Musyamon and Katsuo seemed be sending thoughts to each other, and took awhile to look back to me.

Katsuo glanced up. He looked nervous. "Uh, well, you see…He thought it best that he didn't come say good-bye to you, seeing as you were in a bad mood and all…"

Forget apologies. The next time I saw Sikke, I was going to _kill_ him.

* * *

_Romainu: I'm not even going to make excuses as to why I took so long._

_Anyways, Spring Break starts to tomorrow for me. I hope everyone is enjoying/has enjoyed/is going to enjoy their Spring Break!_

_Review please?_


	9. Night: Digital Energy

**Disclaimer:** Neither I or The Digital Gate own Digimon.

* * *

_**Alias:  
**__Digital Energy_

Some cotton candy would be nice right now.

I absently spun my pencil around. The clouds were nice and poofy today. A little on the gray side, but who cared about that? All I wanted was cotton candy, sugary and as fluffy as the clouds outside.

"MASAAKI SUZUKI!"

I jumped and stared into the angry eyes of my teacher and gulped. "Er…hi?" I said weakly.

"TELL ME," Tendo-sensei roared, slamming his hands down on my desk, "WHAT IS THE ANSWER TO THE PROBLEM ON THE BOARD?"

"Uh…" I hastily wiped drool off the corner of my mouth and squinted. Uh-oh. Everything looked like a foreign language. "Um…forty over seventeen?"

Giggles erupted over the classroom.

"WRONG," my teacher bellowed. "NOW WHAT DO YOU THINK I'LL SAY NEXT?"

I slid down in my seat. "Cleanup duties for the rest of the week?"

"CORRECT." Tendo-sensei stormed off, pausing to throw over his shoulder, "AND BY YOURSELF."

I groaned.

An hour later, I was alone, mopping up the class floor. Sourly, I dunked the mop into the bucket a little too hard, and the thing fell over. Dirty, soapy water sloshed everywhere. I let the mop fall from my hands. "Gah…."

"I'll do it for you."

"Eh?" I turned to the doorway. A girl who sat in the front of the room—I think her family name was Sasaki—was peering inside. "You'll do what?" She shuffled inside and cleared her throat.

"I, um, I'll clean the room for you," she said, tucking a strand of black hair behind her ear. Her glasses slid down her nose and she hastily pushed them back up. "You…um, obviously don't know anything about cleaning…" She stopped, looking horrified. "Wait! I meant, uh, that is…"

"You're right." I looked at the soapy mess on the ground. "I suck at this, don't I?"

Sasaki glanced at me out of the corner of her eye. "Um, yes."

And then we were laughing, which was weird, because I'd never heard this girl speak before in class. If she was called up to the board, she'd do it silently, without a word. "Why do you want to clean for me?" I asked once we'd laughed ourselves out.

"Well…" Sasaki gingerly stepped over the puddles and picked up the mop. "Like I said, you can't clean and…I have nothing better to do."

I frowned. "You sure?"

"Yes."

"Wow, thanks." I clapped her on the shoulder—she squeaked—and headed for the door. Something made me stop; I sheepishly turned around. "By the way, uh, what's your name again?"

"Amaya," she said, picking up the bucket. She looked up, and there was a tiny smile on her face. "Amaya Sasaki."

I wondered if she liked cotton candy.

* * *

I shot through our front door, almost trampled our six-year-old cat—he spat at me, nothing new there—and rushed past my mother.

"Detention?" she called after me.

"Cleanup duty!"

"That's nice," she said affably, but I was already out of the room. I heard her anyway. She still wasn't back to the way she'd used to be before the divorce. I trudged down the hall now, scowling. Stupid Dad.

Minori's door was closed. There was a "DON'T DISTURB—THIS MEANS YOU MASAAKI" sign hanging. My hand hovered above her doorknob. I considered asking her for the answers to our homework, then decided against it. She might throw her pillow at me again, and her pillowcase was stuffed with books. I had no idea how she slept at night.

I opened my own room.

And almost fainted at the smell.

"Moonmon!" I squawked before remembering to whisper. I didn't want Minori to hear me. "Moonmon!" I whispered. "What did you _do_?"

Moonmon looked innocently up from my bed in the middle of a pile of food. It was like a bomb of rotting meat and vegetables. "I got hungry," she said. "So I went to the big white portal and got some."

I staggered inside, clenching my nose, and kicked the door shut. "What big white portal?"

"Oh, you know," Moonmon said. "The one right beside the thing you call a nightlight in the kitchen-place."

I groaned. "Moonmon, that's the _trash can_. You're eating _trash_."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"Oops."

"Now I have to clean all this up." I sat heavily down in my chair, still holding my nose. "Ugh…"

Moonmon was still frowning. "That would explain why my stomach hurts." Then she brightened. "Oh, well! Let's go to the Digital World now Masaaki!"

"But I have to clean…"

"Oh, do it later," Moonmon said brightly. "You always do, right?"

"Yeah…."

"Well then, let's go!"

"Fine…" I spun around in my swivel chair a couple of times before grabbing my D-Soul. Moonmon bounced over to me. "Set coordinates for Night base," I said heavily.

'_Coordinate set.'_

My heart started thumping. Even with the smell of trash in my room, I was getting excited again. "Holo Gate, Activate!" I grabbed the mini-world, shouted, "Digital World, Integrate!" and slammed the world into my blank computer screen.

The mini world slipped through like butter, and suddenly the screen was even darker than before, the color of a bottomless pit. And then the darkness was rushing over us, cool and secure.

Beside me, I could feel Moonmon evolving into Lunamon, strengthened by the power of night, the power of the moon.

_Digital World, here we come._

* * *

We landed in the swimming pool.

Have I mentioned that I suck at swimming? No? Well I do. Case in point: As soon as we hit the water, I panicked, swallowed water instead of air, and sank like a stone.

"Aghh!" Instead of letting out noise, all I let out was a stream of bubbles. Then something grabbed hold of my jacket and I was being pulled, and we were near the surface, and then were breaking free, and I was choking up water, held up by Shiro, smack-dab in the middle of the pool.

"You _idiot_, Masaaki."

I had never been gladder to hear Shiro's voice.

"S-shut…u-u-up," I gasped. "You t-think"—I had to stop to cough up more water—"you think I w-wanted to land in this…pool?!"

"Maybe," Shiro said. "Can you swim?"

I scowled. "Yes."

It wasn't a lie.

I _could_.

It was the doggy paddle.

Shiro reached the shore of the lake-sized pool and laughed at me as I paddled steadily towards him. "Hey," I said defensively, "I'm sw—"

And then I lost concentration, slipped underneath the surface for a few seconds, before managing to come back up. "—imming!" I spluttered, coughing up water again. "Shut up!" I added, because Shiro was laughing again.

I finally reached the shore and clambered out. Lunamon poked me. "You're wet," she said, "are you okay?"

"I'm good." I shook my hair like a dog, and then realized I was wearing goggles. Dang it! Why didn't I realize that _sooner_? "I really needed a shower, anyway."

"Weird way to get one."

I ignored Shiro's smirk. "Where are Aya and Dorumon?"

Shiro's expression changed. "C'mon, I'll show you."

* * *

Aya and Dorumon were standing in a secluded corner of the training room, fighting against a big Digimon. For whatever reason, Aya kept glancing down at her digivice and cursing.

"What is she doing?" I whispered.

"She's trying to use the Zenith Stone," Shiro muttered back. "Slayerdramon's orders. We've already figured out that it's the Zenith Dark Stone, but for whatever reason, she can't use it."

"So what's happening now?"

"They're trying to recreate the fight," Ryuudamon said. "Only…Gorimon is actually trying to hurt them."

"Slayerdramon's orders?" Lunamon guessed shrewdly.

Shiro nodded, his face impassive. "He thinks if they're put in a dire enough situations…Aya will be able to call out the Zenith Stone."

I watched Aya tumbled backwards, hit a wall, and get back up again. The look on her face was too much. I turned away.

* * *

I angrily stormed the halls of the Night base, trying to find Slayerdramon. Just when I was about to kick a wall, someone tackled me into a room. _This place has too many rooms_. I scowled, picked myself up, and turned around.

"Who are you?"

"I know why she can't do it."

I blinked. "Eh?"

The Digimon, a Monochromon, looked uncomfortable. He repeated, "I know why the girl can't get her Zenith Stone out."

"Masaaki!" Lunamon flew in. "I've been looking for you everywhere—oh, hi."

"He says he knows why Aya can't get her Zenith Stone out," I said slowly.

Lunamon perked up. "Really? Why is that?"

Monochromon shuffled on the ground. "Listen, you can't repeat this to _anyone_," he hissed. "If you do, I might get in big trouble. Promise me you won't tell anyone. _Promise_."

"What about our friends?"

He considered it. "Fine, them too. But before you tell them, they've got to promise too. So you promise or what?"

We promised.

"Alright…the thing is…" Monochromon hesitated. "She has to use her Digital Energy."

Digital what?

I must've been speaking out loud, because Monochromon repeated himself. "Digital Energy. It's what humans, well _chosen_ humans, are able to use to power their partners, and hold their own against a Digimon."

"So it levels the playing field," I said.

Monochromon frowned. "What's a playing field?"

"Never mind," I said quickly. "So…this Digital Energy thing…is it this?" And I concentrated, and then, like the day in the training room, an aura flared around my hand. Monochromon's eyes widened.

"That's it! That's it!" he gasped.

I let the Digital Energy die down. "Then why isn't Aya able to use her Zenith Stone?" I asked. "I saw her use her Digital Energy before. Why can't she use it now?"

"I don't know." Monochromon scratched his head. "Maybe..." He sighed. "Look, I'll tell you about Digital Energy and you two…just listen, okay?"

Lunamon and I nodded. Monochromon sat down heavily. "Let's see…" he muttered. "Where should I start?" He frowned, scratched his head, blinked a couple of times, then sighed. "Digital Energy," he said. "Everyone has it, but few know about it."

"_Everyone_ has it?" I said.

Monochromon and Lunamon both glared at me. "Sorry," I said.

"Anyway," Monochromon continued, "the reason why you and your friends, Masaaki, were able to come to the Digital World was because your Digital Energy exists outside of the Digital World, which is pretty unusual in humans.

"You were able to be paired up with your partners because you share the same wavelength pattern—the pattern of your aura.

"Now, about your friend. The only thing I can think of right now is that she may have locked away her Digital Energy. The only way to do this is to have done something wrong, and knowing it was wrong. The guilt coming with it locks away your Digital Energy."

"Then how can she unlock it?" I asked.

"I don't know," Monochromon said. "But I may know someone who does. Now, about _mastering_ Digital Energy. You obviously have already begun to do so. But you're still unstable. I can tell because of the way your Digital Energy appeared—it kind of…popped.

"And don't ask me," he added quickly, seeing me open my mouth. "The person I mentioned earlier…he and some others can show you. Anyway. _Mastery_. Once you can summon your Digital Energy at will, it will become easier to draw it out of your surroundings.

"The Digital World is _filled_ with Digital Energy—it's what it runs on. The sky holds the least amount of Digital Energy, but it's the easiest to draw out; likewise, the earth holds the most, but it's the hardest to draw it out. In order, from least to most, it's the sky, the grass, shrubs, trees, then the earth."

"What about the sun or the moon?" Lunamon asked.

Monochromon looked stumped. "I don't know," he said. "But seeing as you have to be touching the object to draw power from it, there's a good chance you can't get power from the sun or the moon."

"What if you're touching sunlight or moonlight?" I asked.

"Stop asking me difficult questions! Look, I'm going to tell you how to contact someone who knows about Digital Energy. You can ask _him_."

* * *

Lunamon and I crept outside the base, around to the back. "This tree?" I whispered. Lunamon shook her head and pointed to the next one.

"The one with the weird leaves, remember?"

"All the leaves of all the trees look weird," I muttered, leaving the small green note skewered on a small branch before walking away with Lunamon. The note read:

_The plague,_

_DE_

—_M and L_

Just as we were creeping back, a light flashed in our faces. Lunamon and I froze. The guard, a Digimon I didn't recognize, growled, "Just what are you two doing outside?"

"Um," I said, digging in my pockets, "you know…" I pulled out a magnifying glass. "You know how you can get things to catch on fire with these things?" The guard frowned as I hastily scooped together a bunch of leaves. "Look!"

The late night sun's rays hit the glass and through it, focused on the pile of leaves. I squinted as slowly, a trickle of smoke emerged. "See?"

"Enough!" The guard stomped on the pile and I quickly stood up. "Are you _trying_ to alert Day to us?" he hissed. "Get back inside, and save those experiments for Earth!"

"Whiny," I muttered, heading back inside with Lunamon.

"That was too close, Masaaki," she told me seriously. "We've got to be more careful."

"I know."

"Hey, can you show me that fire thing back home?"

"Sure."

* * *

"COME QUICKLY!"

I hacked up the food I'd been eating. "What's…the…matter?" I gagged as Lunamon whacked my back.

Soulmon shrugged. "I don't know. Slayerdramon wants to see you in his office, that's all." He grinned. "Finally scared you, eh?"

"I…am…going…to…_kill_…you," I wheezed. Standing up, I hurriedly gulped down a glass of water before running off, Lunamon flitting away way ahead of me.

Five minutes later, we were gasping for breath in Slayerdramon's office. Shiro and Ryuudamon stared at us. "Not in very good shape, are you?" Shiro finally said. "First swimming, and now running?"

I scowled. "Shut up."

Then the door opened and Aya and Dorumon staggered in.

We jumped to our feet; both of them looked horrible. Dorumon's fur was sticking up every which way, and was caked in dirt; Aya had scratches everywhere, and her leg was heavily bandaged.

They collapsed on the floor. "It's nothing," Aya muttered. "Just…hate Gorimon…"

"It's _not_ nothing," Shiro snapped, pulling Aya up and forcing her into a chair. He did likewise with Dorumon. "When Slayerdramon comes in…" His threat died away in his throat.

I was trying to remember what Monochromon said. "You…didn't do anything bad, did you?"

Aya glared at me in disbelief. "_What?_"

"I—" I hesitated, and exchanged glances with Lunamon. She took over.

"We met someone," she said, "and he knows someone else who is a Digital Energy expert or something."

"Digital what?" Shiro said.

"Digital Energy," Lunamon repeated. "Show them, Masaaki." So I obligingly held out my hand and let the aura flare to life, and watched for the "pop" that Monochromon was talking about. I didn't see one.

"That's Digital Energy," Lunamon explained. "Monochromon said that if you're unable to use your Digital Energy, it's because you've done something wrong or something."

Aya's face was thunderous. And…was that guilt? "What does this have to do with the Zenith Stone?" she demanded.

"You use Digital Energy to call out the Zenith Stone," I said.

Aya's face was turning an interesting color of red and white. But what she would have done I wouldn't know because Slayerdramon walked in, accompanied by a kid with dirty blond hair and a green monkey in a caveman garb.

"These," Slayerdramon said once they were in the room, "are your new companions, Sikke Klein and Monmon."

"How can we trust them?" Shiro asked suspiciously after several moments of silence. Ryuudamon snorted in derision.

"I agree," he said.

"Because they turned me out," Sikke said. "I wasn't their special Chosen or whatever, and so they turned me out, and I found Monmon." He indicated the green monkey beside him. He turned back to us, and his eyes were fierce.

"I'll do whatever I can to help Night out," he promised.

Shiro folded his arms warily. "I don't trust you…yet. We'll see." He got up, Ryuudamon right behind him.

Slayerdramon cleared his throat. "While I'm sorry for his attitude, he does have a point. You will have to prove yourself."

"I understand," Sikke said steely.

"So do I," Monmon said.

"Good." Slayerdramon made to leave. "The two who just left were Shiro Fujiwara and Ryuudamon. This here is Aya Li, and that is Dorumon. The other two are Masaaki Suzuki and Lunamon." He left and Aya, after sending me a look—I wasn't sure what it meant; was it _Help?_—followed, Dorumon limping at her side.

Sikke was looking at me, frowning slightly. "So…Suzuki, huh?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"Popular last name?"

"Sure."

He frowned some more. "You look familiar," he decided before grinning cheekily at me and leaving.

"Weirdo," I muttered.

"You think he likes you?" Lunamon asked.

* * *

I was eating again—dry corn flakes this time—when I tasted paper. Gagging, I spit it out and Soulmon snickered. The rest of my regiment turned around as I bent down and picked up a slip of paper. "Did you do this?" I demanded Soulmon.

Soulmon shrugged. "Nope. Would have loved to, though."

"Get back to training." The regiment did so, and Lunamon floated over to me. I was about to throw it away when I noticed words. "Hey…there's a message."

"What's it say?"

"Wait…" I unfolded the paper, dried it as best as I could, and smoothed it on the ground. Together, we crouched over and read the paper.

_M and L,_

_7.16.00. Same place._

_Carpe diem_.


End file.
